'So do you understand your task?'

Avery glanced up at Sargent as he hovered over her, 'Yes.'

'Repeat it back to me.'

'Infiltrate Shou Tucker's home and take him out before his state alchemist assessment.' She repeated back, being sure not to miss out any detail. He hated it when she couldn't relay her missions back to him exactly, he would go on about how detail is key. He was one of Madame's head men, he was the one to usually give us our tasks- for someone who was so close to Madame he actually came from the military, Avery couldn't help think that it was a risky combination.

'Correct. Before his state alchemist assessment is the most important part.' He reminded her as he passed her a piece of paper. 'This is a photo of the target and his address.' She looked down at the piece of paper to see a tired, middle aged man- eyes covered by his glasses. Her eyes furrowed.

'Is this it? Where's his file?' She questioned.

'You don't need that. All you need to know is that he's the Sewing Life alchemist and he's successfully created a chimera that could talk to humans, had it's own consciousnesses. He specialises in bio-alchemy.'

'Is that all? Why can't I know what he's done? I need to know, I can't just take him out without information!' Avery argued back, taken a step towards him as she demanded an answer. Sargent's eyes flashed and he slammed his hand against the desk causing her to jump.

'As I said.' He growled, 'You don't need them, this case is not in our records so there are no files for him. The less you know the better.' He growled, looking directly at her as he held his ground. Sargent was one of the very few people she knew that could stand against her in a staring competition and boy, did he hold his ground.

'How can he not be in your records if i'm being ordered to kill him?'

Avery jumped back as she heard his fist slam onto the table violently, 'As I said you don't need to know anymore than what I've already told you! As your Sargent I have given you an order and expect that order to be filled out. If not you will have to answer to me!' He bellowed at her, causing her fists to clench. 'Do I make myself clear?'

Avery glared up at him, being sure he could gauge all the anger n hatred she was silently perpetuating towards him and then smiled, 'Crystal clear.'

Avery crouched down in the bush and waited patiently for who was ever in there to come out, she needed to spend the day scoping out the area to figure out a thorough plan but there was one extra car in the drive way and she had no idea who it belonged to but the more people around the more risky her job was. However, Avery had the suspicion that she had seen that vehicle before, she just couldn't point where.

Across the garden she could see a window and just about make out shadows of people against the wall inside, if she got closer to the window then that meant she would be able to see who was inside. She crept out from the bush to get a better view of her route, it's a pretty open space which means i'm going to have to move fast. Avery took in a deep breath and got into position, ready to sprint across.

'Alexander!' She heard a voice cry causing her body to freeze immediately. This sounded like a girls voice, a young girls voice-

'Alexander where are you?' Avery looked around to try and spot the owner of the voice but it was no use, a large part of the garden was cut off from where she was stood. This was stupid of her, she should've been more careful but who on earth could this be?

'Alexander!' The voice cried again, and who the hell is Alexander? Avery wondered only moments before she felt a hot breath behind her. Just as she turned around to investigate what was going on her back slammed against the ground and her body was engulfed in white fur. She let out a shriek scream.

'Alexander there you are!' The girl yelled as she ran over to the dog and Avery, 'Who's this?' Avery continued to scream any chance that her mouth wasn't being smothered by this mammoth, heavy, fluff.

'Get off... of... me!' She struggled in between breaths, feeling her lungs slowly being crushed by the creature.

'Alexander! You caught some body well done!' The girl cried excitedly as she petted her mongrel. Doing nothing whatsoever to help Avery out.

'Get this beast off of me!'

'Alexander isn't a beast!'

'He is too and he's crushing my wind pipe!' She yelled back. She continued to flair her arms about dramatically, her body seizing up, she hated dogs, big ones especially she's seen how vicious they could be and she didn't trust them. Not one bit.

'Avery!' She heard a voice shout, oh shit. Not just any voice, 'What on earth are you doing here?!' Mustang demanded as he marched over to her. Just her luck.

'What are you doing here?' She argued back.

'I don't think you're in any position to be asking questions right now.' He sneered, hovering over her as his eyes traced over her and the dog STILL suffocating her.

'Colonel what's all the noise?' Another familiar voice joined, she could hear footsteps getting closer before they stopped and were followed by, 'You have got to be kidding me!'

'Brother, look! It's the girl from before!'

'Hey this girl has a name you know!' She retorted, although it was quite apparent that no one was listening to her.

'Why the hell is she here?!' Ed demanded, gesturing over to her dramatically. Just as Avery thought things couldn't get any worse.

'That's what I wanted to know.' Roy responded, still not taking his eyes off of Avery.

'Can someone please get this DAMN DOG OFF OF ME!' She screamed in hope of gaining someones attention and that's when she heard it, another voice, his voice.

'Alexander, come on now, come here boy.' He called, Alexander leaped off of her and ran off finally giving Avery a chance to breathe before she looked up at the saviour. Shou Tucker. She leaped up to her feet quickly so she could face everyone.

'Well? Why are you here?' Roy queried once more. She looked around to see six pair of eyes on her, including the dog- they all wanted an answer. And to be honest who could blame them.

'I was sent here on work.' Avery replied vaguely, she didn't quite know how to answer, Roy knew exactly the type of work that she did and she hoped he wouldn't call her up on it. 'To investigate Tucker's research!' She thought of quickly, trying to quickly formulate a story to follow. It was kind of hard however considering her limited amount of information. She was still trying to figure out herself as to why she was sent to kill him, he seemed harmless enough, if anything he seemed quite weak.

'What?' Roy questioned, furrowing his eyebrows, 'Why?'

'Sargent and Madame are actually very interested in Tucker's research and what he's done so far-' She then swiftly turned to face Tucker, reaching her hand out to shake his. 'It's nice to meet you, sorry to drop in so unexpectedly. I was hoping you would've been contacted by now but I guess by the look of confusion on your face that you haven't.' She made an attempt to be as formal and polite as possible, if she spoke how she usually did Mustang wouldn't stand for it for even a second, but with Tucker with them and her being ever so mannerly there wasn't much he could really do.

'What possible interest could bio alchemy be to the A.O.S?' Roy narrowed his eyes down at Avery, she winced slightly and hoped Shou didn't know what that stood for. Roy, he didn't believe her still. It took every ounce of will strength she had inside her not to roll her eyes and retort some sarcastic answer back.

She smiled as soon as a response dawned on her, 'It benefits both sides, having a chimera with human intelligence by our side would mean the military would save money on people and it would also mean that we would be less dependant on the military- any excuse to break away from you dogs.' She sneered at all of them, earning daggers from all ends. Although everything she was saying was a complete lie she realised as the words left her mouth that it actually held some truth in it, this would benefit both sides completely, which made her mission even more confusing.

'Surely I would've heard something from Madame Christmas?' Roy continued to probe, Avery closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she started to feel a vein throbbing on her head. Why did he have to ask so many damn questions?

'Feel free to ring up the Sargent yourself, i'm happy to wait until then but he will only tell you the same thing as I and then both him and Madame wouldn't be very happy with you for wasting their time.' She smiled at him, knowing full well that the mention of Madame being annoyed with him would be the only likely thing to make him back down. And of course, like the dog he was, he backed down at the mention of his owner. Good boy.

'I'm happy for her to be here too, I don't mind at all.' Tucker stepped in, Avery looked at him as he smiled at her. 'Sometimes it's comforting to be in a house filled with people, wouldn't you agree?'

'Does that mean me and Alexander have someone to play with daddy?' The little girl asked, wrapping her arms around him. Avery's stomach dropped as she stared at the man and his soft smile, he was a dad?! She couldn't think straight. She was ordered to kill someones dad?

A whiny voiced ripped her away from her thoughts, 'What? You can't be serious?'

Avery turned her head over to Ed and growled, 'Pipe it pipsqueak.' Ed's jaw clenched and growled back at Avery.

'Don't call me that!' He yelled at her, she winced at the screech in his voice.

'Don't yell at me!' She returned, yelling back at him as she stared him down. She expected Ed to back down by this point but he continued to stare right back at her, mirroring the fire in her eyes.

'Will both of you stop that?' Mustang demanded but that just caused for Ed and Avery to shift their glares over to him.

'Can't they come back another time?' Avery asked the same time Ed asked the same thing about her.

'I don't see why I should be the one to go!' She bit at him.

'Well why should I?!'

'Brother...'

'Neither of you are staying if you don't be quiet right now!' Mustang declared loudly causing both of them to reluctantly back down. He brought his fingers to the bridge of his nose and mumbled to himself, 'there couldn't be a worse combination of people.'

'Now that's solved I was just about to show the Elric brothers my library, would you like to accompany us Avery?' Tucker asked, smiling at Avery again. She wasn't sure why but it caught her off guard.

She blinked before replying, 'Uh, yeah okay.' She responded.

'I'm not sure how much help this will be but this is my library, feel free to look around.' Avery gasped at all the books in front of her, it was nearly as big as the one she collapsed at Central Command HQ, but tidier and with better lighting.

'Oh wow!' Ed cried excitedly, running over to the first shelf that caught his attention. 'Let's get started with this shelf!'

'I'll try starting over here.' Alphonse responded, pointing to the other side of the shelf.

'I'm going back to work now, i'll send someone by to get you this evening.' Roy told them but the boys were too engrossed into their book to notice anything that he was saying.

'I don't think they're listening to you Roy.'

'They never are anyway.' Roy sighed, smiling slightly at the two boys. Avery watched Ed, she'd never seen someone so eager to pick up a book, not even Oliver. She crinkled up her face in disgust.

'They've got some ability to focus, I'm not sure they know we're here anymore. Quite a catch these two... A couple of prodigies.' Tucker commented, pushing up his glasses to the bridge of his nose. There was a hint of admiration in his voice, or so that's what she assumed anyway. When he caught her staring at him he made sure to look at her and smile, 'Anyway i'll go walk the colonel out. Enjoy.' He said before walking away.

Avery turned back around to face the rest of the library before it dawned on her, shit! She was stuck here for the damn day. If Tucker just caught her walking around the house aimlessly he could get suspicious. Although Avery was still struggling to figure out as to why she had to kill him, usually she never had any qualms but this... This just felt wrong. He was someones father, someone who was certified and worked for the military, what could he have done?

Avery walked through the library and scanned all the books with her eyes, it was all alchemy based, bio-alchemy mainly, she didn't really understand what this had to do with the Philosophers Stone. She assumed that was why they were here, it would make sense considering that's essentially how she found them. She figured whilst she was down here, she could at least try and find some answers. 'Is it Al or Alphonse?' She asked the big metal guy. He diverted his attention from his book and looked at her.

'Huh?'

'Do you like to be called Alphonse or just Al?' She repeated, eyeing him up. She folded her arms and leaned against the shelf beside her as she waited for an answer.

'Al will do.' He answered before pausing, looking her up and down as she placed all her weight against the book shelf. 'Um, I don't think you should really be doing that.' Avery blinked a few times as she tried to understand what he meant and then it sunk it, she smiled slightly and moved from the book shelf.

'Well Al,' She said, sticking out her hand towards him, 'It's nice to meet you.' Shame I can't say the same for your brother.

Al took her hand, she tried not to jump as the cold metal made contact with her skin. 'Nice to meet you too Avery.' He responded, and although she couldn't see his face she could hear the sincerity in his voice. She couldn't help but smile and nod in agreement.

'There's something I've been meaning to ask you.' She said, 'At the library, when I accidentally collapsed a heap of books on you and your brother, I saw something. Concerning, well, this.' She gestured towards his body, realising as the words left her mouth that this was coming across a lot ruder than she intended. 'It's just that, your head, and your body, they weren't exactly attached and-'

'Enough.' She heard a voice from behind her. Her face dropped immediately at the voice, she didn't realise one sound could grate on her so much.

'I wasn't talking to you pip squeak.' She turned around to see him stood right behind he, eyes glowering at her. She would've almost have been intimidated if she wasn't looking two inches down at him.

'Brother it's okay.'

'I said enough, drop the subject.' He bit, Avery smirked.

'Aw, am I hitting a nerve?' She got a kick out of watching the glint of anger flash in his eyes but she decided not to push it, this time anyway. 'I'll leave it for now Fullmetal.' She declared as she started walking off. She made out the sound of a grunt behind her but chose to just ignore it. She did have work to do but until she could think of a valid excuse for her to be strolling around his building instead of doing 'research' she was gonna take a nap.

When Avery woke up, it had nothing to do with the hard floor she was sleeping on, or the encyclopedia that she was using as a pillow. No, she's slept through much more uncomfortable conditions. What woke her up was the incessant shouting that she could hear from across the room.

'Al, what are you doing?! You're supposed to be reading!' She heard a loud screech, groggily she got up, rubbing her eyes and wiping the dribble away from her mouth that had happened to slip out in her slumber. What were they being do damn loud about. When she found the source of the voices she couldn't help but smirk slightly as she peered behind the shelf.

Al was stood there with the little girl on his shoulders as he received a scolding from Ed. 'Um...' He trailed, 'Nina looked like she wanted to play.'

'Well in case you forgot, we didn't come here to play horsie!' Ed cried in response, arms flailing everywhere as if it would his cement his point even more. Next thing she knew a dark shadow flew over her, she realised it was the dog when it landed on Ed. Causing him to face plant the ground as the mutt sat on him.

'Alexander says he wants to play too!' Nina claimed excitedly. Avery couldn't contain it any longer, without a moments a notice a loud laughter bellowed out of her lips as hugged her stomach.

'HAHAHAAHAH!' She cried, 'You... Look... So... Tiny!' She forced out in between laughs, she stood up again, resuming her posture but not doing so without wiping a tear from her eye. She looked up to see Al and Nina laughing too. Ed growled as he pushed the dog off of him.

'I am not tiny!' He yelled, 'If that's how you want to play it... I don't know why you're laughing Avery.' Ed grinned mischievously, gaining her attention. '... Playtime is over! I will not lose this time! I, Edward Elric, will use my considerable powers to vanquish you Alexander!' He declared dramatically as he pointed over to the dog before averting his finger over to her, 'And you! YOU MANGY MUTT!'

Avery's face dropped as it dawned on her what he just said, 'HEY WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MANGY MUTT! YOU SHORT ASS!'

'YOU! AND DON'T CALL ME A SHORT ASS!'

'Hmph.' Avery smirked as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and changed the position of her stance, 'you think you can vanquish me?' She asked, raising her arms and bringing them up into fists, 'Bring it!'

Ed and Avery mimicked each others stance before running towards each other, screaming. Just as she was about a few feet away from him she changed her move and climbed on the book shelf on her left hand side before she jumped off of it. She landed right behind him, taking him off guard which gave her the perfect opportunity to jump on him from behind. Wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. She laughed as he let out a strangled cough.

'You were saying about vanquishing me.' She gloated gleefully as she continued to feel his strangled breath against her wrists.

'It's not over yet.' He uttered, Avery didn't really understand what he meant by that until he started spinning around swiftly, bringing her along with him. She hung on for dear life as she felt the wind rush against her body but she could start to feel the unwanted sense of nausea settle in her stomach. She had to decide between being flung across the room or throwing up everywhere, and as appealing as chundering all over the pip squeak was she made the sensible choice and let go. The back of her body slamming into Al's legs. She allowed herself a second to recover since a second was all she had before getting back up and rushing towards Ed.

She knew if she ran at him with full force, that would be enough to send the pip squeak crashing down. She refused to lose, especially to him. For the sake of her dignity if anything. She smirked to herself as her feet lifted off the ground and she lunged towards him. Her confidence in the fact that she would win this fight cemented even more so when she saw the look of fear in his eyes but by the time she figured out the true meaning for that flash of white in his eyes it was too late.

For the second time today, he body was squashed against the floor as the dog sat on her. Only this time Ed accompanied her as their legs tangled up together, she prayed that they wouldn't snap under the weight of the dog because honestly, it was completely possible.

'GET OFF ME YOU MANGY MUTT!' They both screamed in unison, thrashing around violently in a manic. They could here Al's and Nina's laughing in the background.

'Good boy Alexander! You win!' Nina praised the dog affectionately, running over to him and giving him a big hug. Alexander averted his attention over to her which meant that Ed and Avery were free once again. Swiftly, they scrambled to their feet getting back into position.

'Where were we?' Ed asked, raising up his fist.

'I think we were at the part where I was just about to beat you.' She grinned, Ed growled at her.

'Guys, I think you should maybe tone it down with the fighting.' Al interjected, stepping in between the two. 'You're going to end up collapsing the library again at this rate.' Avery couldn't fault what he was saying, he was right. The last thing she wanted to do was to get kicked out of here, she would be getting told off from all angles if she did. She would never hear the end of it. As tempting as beating this twerps ass would've been Avery decided to nod in agreement.

'Okay.' She complied, 'We will finish this at a later date.'

'What makes you think that we are going to see each other again?' Ed asked, frowning at the thought.

Avery brought her forefinger and thumb to her temples and grimaced, 'Unfortunately the probability of us meeting again is looking increasingly more likely.'

Ed looked up at her and furrowed his eyebrows 'What do you mean by that?' He asked, confused by her statement.

'Hm? Don't worry.' Avery looked up and over at Ed and his puzzled expression, for some reason his nosey little face bugged her. 'What makes you think i'd tell a little brat like you anyway?' She barked. Ed's face went red, anyone could tell from a mile off that he was close to blowing a basket.

'WHO ARE YOU CALLING LITTLE?'

'Hey Chief! Your ride has arrived.' Havoc's voiced called as he stepped into the library. He stopped abruptly as he glanced down at the floor below him. 'What are you doing down there Ed?' He asked as Ed was once again, being sat on by the dog.

'Oh, uh... Let's just say i'm taking a break from a long day of research.' He wheezed out as his windpipes were being crushed. Avery noticed the colour wash from his face the moment the dog got off.

'After all that, you must be dog tired.' Tucker joked, Avery snickered as Ed's face darkened. 'Why don't you come on back tomorrow?' Avery couldn't believe how much time she had wasted today, she found out absolutely nothing out about Shou Tucker, she didn't even get a decent whereabouts of his house. And all because she got distracted by those damn alchemists and Nina, how did she let her guard slip so easily?

'You're really going to come again?' Nina cried excitedly turning to Al for an answer, Avery feel a small smile creep on her face and she held it back immediately, biting quickly on her cheek.

'We'll play some more tomorrow. Okay, Nina?' Al replied softly.

'You coming Avery?' Havoc gestured as Ed and Al walked past him, out through the door.

Avery arched an eyebrow at him, 'What?'

'Colonel told me to take you back home after these two.' He responded grinning.

'No.' She said crossing her arms, Havoc's face dropped at her reply.

'Aw come on.'

'Absolutely not.'

'I'll even let you sit in the front seat after we drop them off.' He offered, Avery growled at him.

'How old do you think I am?!' She knew that bastard only ordered Havoc to give her a lift home because he didn't entirely trust her reason for being here. How dumb did he think she was?

'Well to be honest you aren't really being given a choice.' He announced as he suddenly picked her up and placed her over his shoulder, he smiled and ignored her protests and kicks as he walked out the door.

'Hey! What do you think you're doing? Put me down!'

Havoc paused and looked over at Tucker, 'Oh, Mr. Tucker, I almost forgot. I've got a message for you. It's from the colonel. He says, "Don't forget, assessment day is coming soon."

Avery stopped, remembering what the Sergeant said about assessment day. What was so important about it? Why did it have to be done before then? Why did it have to be done in the first place? 'Yes... I know.'

'Right.' Havoc nodded.

Avery could hear Ed groan the moment he saw Havoc place her in the back with them, she couldn't help but return the sound. The feelings mutual pip squeak.

'Why is she here?' Ed grumbled but Avery just ignored him and chose to look out the window instead as the car drove off. Getting in a fight in a moving vehicle probably wouldn't go down to well with Roy, or anyone else for that matter.

'So Avery, where do you live?' Al asked, making conversation in a tense atmosphere. She sighed and rested her cheek on her hand as it rested against the car window.

'You wouldn't know it.' She replied bluntly, as if she was going to give them any information on her life.

'You never know, our search has surprisingly lead me and Ed to quite a few places.'

'Oh yeah, your search.' She replied nonchalantly, 'Tell me. Why is it that you two are looking into the Philosophers Stone?' She asked, 'Like what has Tucker's research got to do with that?' Fuck it, if she wanted answers about this stone she might as well as the two people looking into it. She could end up finding something out.

'That's not important.' Ed chimed in, she looked down at Ed tensing his metal fist, and then over to Al's metal body. What actually happened to these two?

Avery looked up at Ed, 'Well we both know that's not true.' She sighed, 'But i'll leave it for now.' She muttered earning a confused look from Ed. She didn't know enough yet, to just start bombarding them with questions. For the rest of the car journey they all remained silent, not having anything that they wanted to say in front of each other. Avery wasn't so bothered about it though, she preferred it this way too.

By the time she got back she was shattered and headed straight into bed, who would've thought that two boys, a dog, and a little girl could be so tiring? And besides she wanted to avoid all contact with the Sargent anyway, she didn't want to answer any questions right now. Especially with how conflicted she was.

Never before had she really questioned her kills, it was her job, what other choice did she have? But this, this felt wrong. Shou Tucker was someone's father, he was all that girl Nina had. She needed him, Avery could see it in Nina's eyes just how much she looked up to him. It was kind of heartwarming. And plus she couldn't find any reason as to why he should be her next target, there was nothing that pointed towards him being a villain. Even the Sargent couldn't tell her anything, even so though, in all of her years of her being with them never once had she been ordered to kill without good reason. She sighed loudly and wrestled with her sheets, her brain hurt from thinking.

Her only option as of right now was to assess the situation again tomorrow. This time she couldn't get so easily distracted by some boys either.