Tolly: I must stop procrastinating and finish this bloody story… I must stop procrastinating and finish this bloody story… I must stop procrastinating and finish this bloody story…

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As Robin lay in bed, listening to Emma's faint snores, she ran through the day's events in her head. One of Dual Spirit's voices had sounded almost exactly the way she remembered Sophie. The only difference was that this voice sounded older. And the other voice was very different from what Sophie's had been, and apparently, was that of an Ishbalan girl. So what was Dual Spirit? Was she really two spirits, like her name suggested, sharing the same body? But how?

Presently, Robin heard her father's uneven steps on the street outside, accompanied by the steady footsteps of her mother. She heard them come inside, heard her father's sigh when he saw the mess made by Anna and her student, and then heard them both coming upstairs for bed.

"Hey, Mom?" she called, softly so she wouldn't wake Emma.

"What?" came her mother's reply, even softer. "I thought you were asleep."

"I was just thinking. You saw the bodies of Sophie and Peter, right?"

Her mother winced audibly. "Yeah, I did."

"Was Sophie whole? I mean, did she still look like a human?"

"…Nope." Anna closed the bedroom door, ending the conversation, and Robin fell asleep, still trying to figure out what Dual Spirit was.

Had she stayed awake any longer, she would have heard the soft padding of bare feet on the street outside her house.

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The next morning, when Robin woke up, Emma was gone.

On her pillow was a pair of dice. Robin groaned when she picked them up. "That stupid addict…" she muttered, and hurried to get dressed.

"Where's the nearest place you can go to gamble?" she asked as she came down the stairs.

"Zeke's," her mother answered without hesitation. "Six blocks east of HQ."

"Wait, you've memorized where the gambling pubs are?" asked Leon. Anna flicked his forehead.

"No. Blackpowder Rule #102: Not allowed to bet anyone's soul in any form of gambling. Zeke's was where Roy caught me at it," she explained. "Anyway, why are you asking, Robin? The last thing we need is to take Emma gambling."

Robin presented the dice. "She's already gone."

"Ah, dammit," Anna sighed. "Well, go on and get her then. If she's not there, come find me at HQ and we'll send out a platoon or something."

"What are you doing at HQ?"

"Working on a project with General Armstrong. It's a type of projectile attack. It was Roy's idea," said Anna. "I think the Artillery Alchemist will be helping, too. That one's a little too trigger-happy for my tastes."

"So says the woman who blows open a door if it doesn't open on the first try…" muttered Leon.

"Shut it."

Robin smirked and left the house. She'd had her bedroom door blown open on multiple occasions, not that explosions bothered her at all. Big booms were the sound of her childhood, and she was the only person she knew who was capable of sleeping through a large-scale bomb, except perhaps her parents.

She paused outside her house, reviewing her mental map of Central City. She could go to HQ and then walk six blocks east, or she could go four blocks east now and then three north and arrive in the same place with less walking. She settled on the latter option.

Robin could tell where streets began and blocks ended by the feeling of houses or emptiness before her. There were certain smells associated with different streets, and she was also very good at memorization. With as much ease as a person with sight, Robin soon arrived at Zeke's pub.

The moment she stepped in the door, she scowled. How could so many people be so noisy so early in the morning? With all the chatter, there was no way even she could pick out Emma's voice, and no way Emma could hear her calling. Nor was she intent on attempting to sniff out Emma's particular scent of racing horses and iron, so sense of touch it was. She stood in a vacant space near the door and slipped off her shoes, focusing on the sensitive soles of her feet.

Vibrations in the floor from the stomping of heavy adults gave her a clear "image" of where things were in the pub. Five men already drinking at the bar…a fat man and a slender woman in the corner…three teenage-sized boys and a girl with heavy boots at a table in the back…Robin put her shoes back on and made her way to that table.

"Well?" she demanded when she got there.

Emma jumped in her seat, nearly dropping her cards. "What the—how did you find me?"

"This is my city, that's how. Now, come on, we've got work to do."

"Aw, but we're right in the middle of a hand!"

"Too bad!" Robin grabbed Emma's arm and hissed in her ear. "We're supposed to be finding out more about Dual Spirit, remember?"

"Hey, I know you!" said one of the boys. "You're the Blackpowder Alchemist's daughter!"

One of his buddies laughed. "My old man says she'll end up just like that guy Kimblee did—blown to bits."

Emma saw Robin's hands clench tightly around her cane. "Uhh, okay, let's get going before you do something you'll regret, Robin."

"No, I want them to apologize first," said Robin coldly.

The first boy snorted derisively. "What if we don't? You gonna make us?"

Robin nodded.

"You and what army, blind girl?"

Emma reached for her pistols before remembering that they had been taken away from her. As her hand went for the deck of transmutation cards in her jacket pocket, Robin shook her head.

"That won't be necessary, Emma. I'll handle these idiots," she said smoothly, all traces of anger wiped from her face. "Let's take it outside, stupid boy."

"Oooh!" sneered his friends, but all three followed the girls out onto the street.

"Hold this," said Robin, handing her cane to Emma. She took a pair of elbow length gloves out of her long skirt's pocket. "This is your last chance to run away, boys."

They just laughed some more, obviously not realizing that the swirling designs on Robin's gloves were transmutation circles. But when she clapped her hands together to activate them, the three boys stopped laughing.

"You didn't tell us Blackpowder's daughter was an alchemist, too!" one of them muttered.

The first boy shushed him. "Um, we're sorry?"

"Too late!" snapped Robin. The transmutation circles glowing, she spun her arms in rapid circles, attracting the ions in the air and pulling them into a cyclone of wind around her fists.

"They're getting away," Emma informed her.

"Then stop them," said Robin, absorbed in the task of building the cyclones.

"Can do, cuz." Emma pulled two cards out of her pocket and pressed them to the ground. Lightning sparks of alchemy raced along the street, faster than the boys could run, and a stone wall sprang up before them, blocking their way completely.

Kicking off her shoes, Robin stopped spinning her arms, the miniature tornadoes now capable of maintaining their own velocity. She "saw" with her feet where her targets were and punched both arms toward them with all her strength. The tornados shot from her arms and sped toward the boys, knocking them into the air with hurricane-force wind.

Emma took down her stone barrier and watched them run away, rubbing their sore behinds where they had landed. She whistled appreciatively. "You've been practicing, I see."

"Thanks," Robin said, taking a deep breath and rubbing her arms; they were rubbed raw and sore where the gloves hadn't protected them from the wind. "Mom's going to have a fit if she finds out I got into a fight again."

"Again? This happens a lot? Looks like you got your share of Johnson pride."

Robin nodded. "You won't tell, will you?"

"I won't if you don't tell them I was gambling. Deal?"

"Deal!" said Robin, grinning. "Now, let's go get some information at HQ. We've still got Dual Spirit to worry about."

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Tolly: Mwahahaha! A chapter done in (almost) a single sitting! I can so do this! Please review!