Roy wandered up to the excavation site slowly, his dark thin eyes scouring the pits surrounding him as a few other archaeologists chiselled away at the volcanic stone. The tapping of the mallets on the chisels breaking away the rock was soothing to Roy, but only partially. It was the type of sound that could either be a comfort in one's ear and mind; or one that droned, tweaked and pretty much made his ears slowly bleed. As Roy walked past one of the sections marked off by green twine, which was rested at exactly at tripping level, (There had been more than one incident) he looked down into the dust filled pit. Covered in bits of dirt, debris and volcanic rock was basketball sized melted hunks of metal. These balls rested in the bases of the pits, looking no different than oddly coloured rocks. Roy thought they faintly looked like pieces of machinery, but he shrugged it off as a silly thought. It was probably just some balled up ores from an explosion or eruption. These ore balls were a major discovery, because their team weren't there to do an archaeological dig; they were there to do some standard scientific testing of the area.

He and his team were only here the day they discovered the balls for a few standard rock samples to study nitrates in the soil, the pH level and the density. It was simple enough but it turned into a fully-fledged excavation when the metal balls were found and the leading member of their scientific community had sternly stated that these metal spheres could be more than what they think they were and that they should do more diggings around the area to test if there were any more of the alloy boulders. Roy now carefully crossed a wooden board that was placed across a gap in the diggings that had been created when two pits had sides that fell away and the team decided the easiest way to pass the collapse was to place a plank of wood in between the gap with no structural support. The board bent dramatically and even groaned a little as Roy strode across it as a shortcut to reach his destination. When he placed his feet on the rock on the other sides of the pit he turned around and scowled deeply at the timber plank, his glare portraying the message he wanted to speak out-loud 'I'm not that fat.'

Quietly and sneakily, Roy walked up behind a middle height blonde woman who held a clipboard within her left arm and quickly, like a snake striking its prey, wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her slightly so her feet only skimmed the ground. She squealed in surprise at his sudden gesture and slapped his arms. He let out a gentle laugh and let her go out from his arms, firstly putting her feet back on the dusty ground surrounding them and then letting go of her waist with some hesitation. The blonde scowled at his childishness before she held out a piece of cloth for him to look at. "We discovered this within one of the pits. We think its leather and judging by the shape we guessed it was worn as clothing."

"Leather? Hmm..." Roy pondered quietly. "Someone must have been caught in the eruption that formed all this organic rock."

The dusty woman blinked at him once, her left eye comically twitching slightly. She was holding back a glare. How cute. "Of course."

Roy winked at her subtly and leant in close to whisper in her ear, his breath ghosting on her earlobes. "Well Riza, it's been a while since our last encounter and this work is very stressful. Maybe we could go to my house together and-"

"HOLY SHIT!" a voice echoed across the diggings and into the ears of Roy and Riza. Roy immediately split away from a blushing Riza, quickly apologising to her for having to stop their conversation, before he turned away from her and ran towards excavation pit 12, almost falling down one of the pits. Riza sighed at the hopeless man and decided to follow after him. When Roy peered down, he saw what the profanities were directed towards. The worker had discovered the cavity of seemingly a human body, the edges crumbled slightly and the hollowed out area surrounded by rock. The air that rushed into the hole was the first fresh air this body cavity had felt in most likely 1000 years old judging by the carbon dating.

"Get the French plaster!" Roy yelled over his shoulder to one of the workers who was standing in awe. The man jumped, threw his cigarette to the ground and ran to the bag of white powder they had brought. It was a necessary part of excavations due to the shear uncertainty of a dig. Roy was almost bursting from joy. This find was like a dream come true for him. Finally, he would get a name for himself. Finally, he wouldn't have to bow to his superiors, finally he-

A sharp crack and a flash of light, like electricity, lit up the hollow cavity with a startling red colour and a sound similar to iron scraping on a chalkboard droned from it. Roy was frozen, but then turned around slowly, eyes widened in shock at what had just happened within the hollow they had found discovered. A human leg was forming from the cavity, twitching as the new muscles and tissue was added to it. You could see the bones slowly grow out and form seemingly from nowhere and the muscle come up to form over the bones over the leg, before tissue and skin covered them over. Roy let a sound out of his mouth that was incredibly high pitched, not quite a scream, not quite a cuss word; a mix of the two. Riza was next to him at the time of the 'magical leg' formation and was the first to react to the sight before them. She grabbed the largest hammer near them, which was a rubber topped mallet capable of breaking a leg which was used for driving chisels into sedimentary rocks and with one foul swing of her arms, slammed it on the top of the cavity where it was quite obvious a human body was forming as lightning and the sound coming from within had stopped.

A great cracking sound split the air as the volcanic rock split into many tiny pieces all over the ground, her hands, and many other places around them. She reached up and pulled the remaining shards of stone away from the top of the hollow. The naked torso of a girl was underneath the stone and dirt, causing the men looked away instantaneously, embarrassed at the sight of a female's body. Riza didn't care for things like modesty at this time. As Riza pulled the stones from the face of the clearly teenage girl, she realised how much worse the situation was getting for the girl in the ground. The girl wasn't breathing nor was she moving. Riza sighed, her shoulders slumping forward and her head falling forward. She wasn't quick enough to save this girl...

The teenage girl's dark brown eyes shot open suddenly and she took a great gasp of air into her lungs as she sat up, debris and dust falling from her body. Her hands were clawing forward at the dirt, trying to get out of the stones encasing her remaining leg and her left arm. She was coughing, spluttering and panicking, tears sliding down her face and dripping onto the dirt before her. Riza pushed her back firmly and gently chiselled her trapped arm from the volcanic rock. After doing so, Riza pulled both her arms forward and upward, forcing the girl to look into Riza's eyes. She took a deep raspy breath, trying to calm down a little whilst still getting use to the sensations of breathing once again.

Dust from the rocks from the dig had settled over her face forming a brown coating on her face, broken only by her tears causing trails cutting through the fine layer of dust forming their own little rivers. Riza frowned at this girl's face which displayed her clear distress and pulled her close to her, embracing her softly and trying to have her calm down so she was easier to deal with. The girl stiffened underneath her but eventually relaxed, sagging into her in a way that almost displayed defeat. Riza felt a tap on her shoulders from above the diggings and turned to look up at the source. Roy was holding out a woollen blanket for Riza to give to the girl to cover her so she could keep some modesty. Riza grasped it firmly in her left hand and wrapped it around the girl in front of her. It was a dark brown colour, a similar colour to the girl's eyes. A flicker of red on the girl's arm caught Riza's eyes causing her to turn and see a sharp red tattoo streaking up her left forearm as it re-drew itself onto her appendage.

Riza looked sympathetically at the girl in front of her. Her eyes were gently focused on the poor child in front of her who was clearly struggling to gauge her surroundings. "Are you okay?"

"Was?" She replied, a confused look on her face when Riza spoke to her.

"You must speak another language. Obviously." Riza mumbled to herself, looking a little lost. How was she supposed to communicate with this girl if there was a major language barrier in between them?

"Ich heiβe Lan Fan. Wir heiβt Du." She spoke towards Riza, a small but sceptical smile on her face.

"I can't understand you."

The girl was frustrated, she let out a long slow breath as she glared at the ground in muted annoyance. She pointed at herself. "Ich bin Lan Fan."

Riza raised an eyebrow in confusion at the teenager in front of her.

She pointed again. "Lan Fan. Lan. Fan."

Riza understood now; she was trying to tell Riza the girl's name. She pointed at herself. "Riza."

Lan Fan smiled at Riza, looking relieved. Riza was a little relieved that the girl managed get her point across.

"C'mon." Riza put both hands on the edge of the pit and hoisted herself out of it as Lan Fan sat in the bottom of the pit holding the blanket close to her covered in dirt. She turned and looked at the girl, offering her a hand for Lan Fan to take to help her out of the hole. Lan Fan gingerly took her hand and was pulled out of the hole by Riza, whilst still holding the blanket tightly to her body.

"Roy, I'm taking her home with me." Riza informed the black haired man in front of her, her arm holding Lan Fan close to her to her body, almost in a protective way whilst she stood there awkwardly. Some people might have even have believed that the girl was one of her own.

"Okay." Roy frowned.

Riza took Lan Fan's hand and led the dust-covered girl through the excavation sights, going around unsafer areas and areas with sharp stones or tools on the ground. Lan Fan held the blanket around her tightly as she stared at the ground. She coughed out some dust that was inside her throat and mouth but kept moving around the holes in the ground. Her eyes were wide and taking everything in with childish curiosity, the futuristic buildings surrounding them even in the rural areas also seemed to make Lan Fan's eyes have a slight twinkle to them. Riza finally managed to make it to her silver coloured car that rested on a gravel covered area that the team had temporarily built to park cars on top of. She stopped and opened the front passenger door of her car and offered for Lan Fan to get in, gently pushing her on the back to help her get over her apparent nervousness. Lan Fan hesitated, but eventually clambered into the vehicle.

"Ling. Es ist dein Hause..." She whispered in slight astonishment at the vehicle she was seated in.

Riza leaned over and put the seatbelt on the girl for her as she obviously didn't know how to do it herself. She smiled at the dust-covered female and turned before then clambered into the other side of the car. "Let's get you home."

Riza's bare feet padded softly on her plush carpet on her way to the guest bedroom. She opened the door slowly and looked inside of the room to make sure the occupant was still inside and hadn't made a mad dash out the window. Lan Fan sat on the bed, knees to chest with her arms wrapped around them as she stared at the sunset like it had hypnotised her. Riza gently tapped Lan Fan's shoulder and smiled when Lan Fan turned to look at her into watching it. Lan Fan was in a pair of Riza's old pyjamas which clearly didn't fit the short girl; the pants were too long and the waist was too wide but Lan Fan made them fit by rolling up the waist to make it thinner. She had a loose white T-shirt on with a humming bird printed on the front of it and her ebony hair was damp from her recent shower. From where Riza was standing at the door he could see the crimson tattoo that covered her left arm from her posterior to her elbow.

"Dinner's ready." Riza said even though it was pointless and to correct her mistake, she mimicked eating out of a bowl. Lan Fan nodded in mutual understanding and stood up, following Riza out of the room, down the small hallway, and into the kitchen where Riza had set two porcelain bowls down filled with a hot soup Riza had cooked. The spices wafted up Riza's nose and made her stomach grumble almost angrily at her. Looking at Lan Fan's feet, the older blond noticed her bare feet knowing that the cold tiles would be almost painful.

Dinner was eaten in silence. Hawkeye looked at Lan Fan's back as she went back to her room, mumbling something about being moody? She was so thin and small and the clothes she wore barely fit. Because she had regenerated seemingly from nothing within a hollow cavity formed from her own body in the base of a once volcano startled Riza and deeply worried her. Just what sorts of things had the poor girl seen in her lifetime? Dunking her hands in the hot soapy water, Riza began to scrub at the dishes within the sink. Black Hayate nosed her leg for the leftovers from dinner and Riza smiled as she placed down Lan Fan's bowl to her shiba inu. Lan Fan had only ate half of the food she was given but Riza didn't mind though; considering the situation she wouldn't have been that hungry either. She couldn't say the same for Roy however. He was a bottomless pit for food to go into and never return from again. His stomach was like a portal to another dimension.

Looking at her feet and smiled at Black Hayate who was nudging his nose into her leg again. "What is it boy? Need to go outside?"

Hayate wagged his tail and ran towards the door.

Riza giggled softly at her little mutt and opened the glass sliding door to let Hayate out into the small yard she owned to do his business in the cold, dark night. Her house was small when compared to what other people owned, but it was all that she really needed to sustain herself. It had two bedrooms and one bathroom, a kitchen, a living room and a laundry. She closed the door and waitied for the insistent whining and scratching Hayate would let off when he wanted to be let back in after he had done his business. It was cold outside in early summer and Riza could feel the chill when she opened the door prickle her flesh. After two minutes she had to remove herself from her dishes and open the door as a little black shape darted inside and leapt onto his blue, worn, hair-covered dog bed in her living room, right next to her plush chair. Black Hayate curled up, closing his eyes.

Riza smiled at her little ball of fuzz before she steeled her face and wandered into the guest room to check on Lan Fan as the light was still on. Curled up on the spare bed in a foetal position, Lan Fan dreamed lazily as she held herself close to her body in a protective sort of manner. Soft snores came from the girl as she rested properly in the abyss of sleep, caressed by the blankets beneath her. Her shirt had ridden up her body a bit, her flat, creamy skin displayed in the gap formed between her shirt and her pants; her chest rose and fell softly and Riza pulled the blanket sitting by the young girl's feet up to her shoulders.

Riza closed the guest bedroom door gently as to not to disturb her visitor and walked over to the landline phone as quietly as she could. She needed help on this issue. She dialled a familiar number and waited for her friend to pick up on the other side. Riza had confidence she would answer, as it wasn't that late in the evening.

"Hello?" A soprano voice questioned her after the ringing was suddenly cut off.

"Hello Sheska. It's Riza. I need a hand." She replied.

"Oh Riza, hey; sure, what is it you need help with?"

"You're going to have a hard time believing this but there is a girl staying in my house that we found in our excavations and so I decided to take her home with me."

"Wait; hold up a second. So you found her at the site just wandering around? You can be charged for kidnapping, Riza!"

"Not on the site, in the site."

The line was silent for a moment as Sheska processed the statement. Riza wasn't one to joke, so this was definitely real. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know. We found a cavity of a human body so we went to fill it with plaster to get a look at the body but she then just… formed out of it. Her body literally regenerated and grew right before our eyes. She speaks another language so we need your help Sheska, you can speak her language."

"Okay Riza... I'll be over tomorrow so don't have her run away."

The line went dead, a monotone beep playing through the ear piece as Riza sighed gratefully and replaced the phone onto its charging stand; before she then wandered into the living room.

"Maybe I'll finish my book." Riza mused quietly as she practically fell into the chair, tired of the hard day's work and general shock of the day finally taking a toll on her. She picked up a her old copy of A Tale Of Two Cities from her stand next to her bed and pulled out the bookmark after opening to the pages that the bookmark was wedged in-between. Relaxing into the chair, she began reading, practically falling into the book, engrossed in the story as it transported her into a new world.

The old clock she inherited from her grandfather chimed 10 times, signalling the time before the whole house went dark. Riza lifted her head and sighed at her lights. I guess they needed to do repairs. Hawkeye stood and went to go get the spare torch from the kitchen when she froze at the sounds of feet padding through the house, the noise slightly echoing off her plain cream painted walls. Riza put the book down and loaded her little revolver she had retrieved from a draw in her desk. She was almost certain that it was just Lan Fan, but you can never be sure within the middle of the night. She wandered out of the living room and walked into the hallway briskly, the dark looming in front of her giving an eerie feeling as her flesh rose in goose bumps. She flicked on the lights but, to no avail, zero volts of power went through the globe to light it.

A movement in the dark caught Riza's attention and she lifted her gun to the shape in front of her. Lan Fan wandered out of Riza's room a few moments later, hugging the pillow close to her chest looking lost and distressed.

"Riza!" She cried, not incredibly loud but it was still too loud for this time of night. Riza would have scolded her if she could communicate with her, but she couldn't, so she just had to give a stern look.

"You should be asleep." She sounded like the poor girl's mother, although Riza doubted she had parents due to the nature of her being.

The girl pointed at the lights, her arm shaking slightly.

"It's a power cut." She explained, although she wasn't sure why. Lan Fan couldn't understand her anyway.

Lan Fan's bottom lip trembled and she almost stumbled over to Riza, the dark making it hard to see little things like a desk's edge which Lan Fan collided her hip into on her way to the other female. Lan Fan hugged Riza tightly and let a little sob out her mouth as Riza was utterly bewildered. She had a little resolve but brought her hands around in a tight hug anyway. The girl kept mumbling to herself. "Ling... Ed... Winry...Das Mannequin zombies."

Mannequin Zombies

Riza stared at Lan Fan as she continued to shake. She was someone from the period of the white creatures. But, they were just myths! Enigmas! Movies used them for horror to scare viewers with their pale, decaying bodies and their flesh eating habits. They existed over 1000 years ago when they suddenly disappeared so scientists weren't even sure if the creatures even existed. If Lan Fan saw these things, lived with these things, fought these things, then surely she was a valuable source of information to scientists and the government. Riza kept stroking Lan Fan's silky black hair that was still moist from her shower until she stopped trembling. Riza felt a sudden wave to protect the girl from the prying questions and sharp tools of her future as the scientists and the government would try and pry intel from her mind and mouth. After a while, when the power came back on, Lan Fan went settled into her room again and went back to sleep quickly. Riza was left with her thoughts that would plague her dreams with endless questions about a little girl.

She soon realised that if Lan Fan was not just linked to the Mannequin Zombies, but she might even be deeply engrained into the mysteries surrounding them. She maybe even knew why they disappeared suddenly from the earth. Riza could only hope that they found something, anything that would help them unravel the mystery tomorrow when Sheska came over to decipher her mixed words. Riza didn't find sleep easily that night, and when it did come, it was plagued by an immortal teenager with a red tattoo snaking around her arm, ending in a flame tattoo.