Things seem to be happening all too quickly. Alphonse Elric III raced through the streets of resembool to his home. Turning at the faded old sign that said "Rockbell's Automail shop" he raced up the porch steps and burst through the door in time to see a group of solders surrounding his Ishvarlan wife and two young children. He pushed past the solders and hugged his wife and eldest daughter, Annatrista. She was confused and still in her pajamas, but perked up when her father came in the room.
"Daddy!" She called as he approached. A tear broke through the barriers of his eyes as he knew what was going on. The Second Ishvarlan extermination campaign was recently initiated and all Ishvarlans were ordered to be killed.
"It's okay little Annie. Everything is going to be okay. Daddy loves you sweetheart." He said formulating a plan that he knew was a suicide mission. He pushed his family behind him and stood facing the officer in charge (OIC) of this mission. The OIC stared him down, pity and regret hinting in his eyes.
"Stand aside, Fullmetal." He ordered.
"You'll have to shoot me. You are not harming my family! over my dead body!"
"Alphonse! Dont make me do this! I have orders from the Fhürer herself!" Tears threatened the OIC's eyes. He didn't want to have to shoot his friend, but orders were orders. The man raised his gun and the state alchemist stared in disbelief.
BANG! A small child's shriek sounded followed by another gunshot and the neighbor Automail mechanic lept to her feet and raced onto the porch. The Elric home was barely visible from the elder woman's home so she decended steps, moving fast for a woman her age. Pinako Winters entered the home and saw the parents of the two children shot and the elder child holding her younger sister terror gleaming in her big round red eyes as the gun was turned on them./em/p
"That is enough! She is just a child! What is she going to do? Overthrow the military high command? Spare the poor child!" The elder surgeon-mechanic exclaimed. The man came to his senses and ordered his men to stand down. He knew he would lose his rank for disobeying an order but this was a child. He already had enough blood on his hands now. He didn't need the blood of a pair of children added to it.
"COLONEL!" A woman called for the fifth time, jolting the man awake.
"Yes Lieutenant?" He answered, half asleep. She frowned at her superior and reminded him to finish his paperwork. He complied only to be interrupted by the door being kicked open.