Laurel often wondered how anyone could ever love her. She was sure her parents had cared for her, they were all she had, but Laurel was certain that they had never loved her like that.

Izumi Curtis loved Alphonse Elric like he was everything, like he was more than just a soul in a suit of armour, she loved him as though she could see everything he had been and would be and liked what she saw, like she was already proud of him despite not knowing what was destined for him.

Yeah, Laurel thought, her parents had never loved her like that.

She heard Izumi enter the room and make it belong to her, suddenly the Devil's Nest Gang looked like visitors in her space. Laurel pulled Dolcetto up by the collar, his face bleeding from Izumi's beating.

"Bring brother here!" Al pleaded with his teacher, "bring brother and everything will be okay, I promise!"

Laurel was sure that would be true if the Fullmetal Alchemist wasn't known for being reckless, this whole ordeal would go a lot more smoothly if all those participating just followed along with what Greed wanted. But Laurel supposed that was human nature. She had long ago stopped referring as herself as human.

"If you hurt either Alphonse or Edward," Izumi barked, "I'll kill every last one of you!"

"I like your teacher!" Greed gurgled when the woman left, his voice full of glee.

Al stuttered out a thank you.

That girl, Izumi thought back to the gang, she was young. The girl that had been sitting off to the side, beside Al, only looked about Ed's age, maybe older, Izumi couldn't really see her face properly, but Izumi knew she had been young.

She was a small thing, Izumi thought, and very innocent. But she could see the way her body seemed to know an exit in every room, and Izumi thought: smart.

"Your brother," Laurel inquired, "he's an Alchemist, right? Like you? He's the Fullmetal Alchemist, isn't he?"

Al nodded. Laurel didn't respond.

"Yeah," Martel spoke up, "Al just nodded, yeah."

Laurel hummed.

Al gazed at Laurel, curious and in thought.

"Well," Laurel finally nodded, lifting up her arms and cracking her back by turning side-to-side, "we'll see how well this one-of-kind prodigy can handle a real fight."

Greed chuckled.

"He's all yours, kid," he said, "but just remember not to kill him, I still need to talk to him."

"You can always count on me," Laurel said and she meant more than just about not killing the kid. But she couldn't say it, didn't really know how.

Edward Elric marched through the Devil's Nest and came face-to-face with a girl only a little taller than himself. She was dressed in large clothes and a beanie, sunglasses covering her eyes like a mask. She was smiling.

"WHERE IS HE?" Ed shouted. "WHERE IS MY LITTLE BROTHER?"

"Christ," the girl sighed, she scratched her head and jumped off the crate she was lazily sitting on before. "for someone so small, you sure can be loud."

"WHAT'D YOU CALL ME?"

Ed ran at her, throwing punches and kicks one after the other, flailing wildly. The girl laughed, loud and cold, and dodged each attack, she finally stopped moving but managed to grab hold of Ed's Automail arm and swing him onto the ground.

"You might wanna use your Alchemy, kid," She advised, "if you think you can go easy on me and still win, you're – "

Ed clapped his hands together, a metal spear growing out of the ground to scrap the side of the girl's face, causing her to fling backwards. She stood up, throwing her hat to the ground and inspected her now broken sunglasses.

"Fuck you," she seethed, "those were new."

Ed stared at the girl in shock.

"You – you're – "

Her head was shaved but you could see the white hair growing back, her eyes were narrowed but were as white as her hair.

"You're blind," Ed blinked, "and you're an – "

"Ishvalan." The blind girl said for him, "stop stuttering, punk."

"I can't fight you!" Ed cried, "You're – "

The girl ran at him, pulling out a gun from her large coat and shooting him in the shoulder and then in his flesh knee. Ed cried out as the girl kneed him in the stomach.

Automail, Ed winced, arms and legs.

She threw her gun to the ground and produced two small daggers. The girl kicked Ed's chest and fell with him to the ground, she used each dagger to pin his hands into the floor below them. Her knee then fell to his throat, cutting of his air supply slightly.

Ed saw her clearly now. Her face, mutilated beyond repair, her lips spread in a razor-blade smile. She was young but old enough to have seen the terrors of the Ishvalan war. Ed, should he have been in the circumstance to, would have wondered what happened to the girl, wondered what horrors she had seen but Ed was quite aware that this girl could slit the veins in his wrists or shoot him or cut him open throat to groin, and he'd be defenceless against her. She held this power like she knew all along that this would happen.

"Who are you?" Ed asked, blood trickling from his lips. "What's your name?"

"Laurel," the girl replied.

Laurel didn't sound like an Ishvalan name, Ed thought, he wondered who had given it to her, and who had taught her to hold the knowledge of victory so gracefully.

"Oi, Laurel!"

The pressure on Ed's neck relented and he could finally breathe properly again.

Laurel turned slightly, her ear facing the direction of the man walking towards them.

"The Military's here," he said.

"So?" Laurel said. "After I finish this one, I'll kill them too."

"You idiot!" The man tapped Laurel's head once, twice, thrice, then pulled her off Ed. "I need this shrimp alive. I want you to escape with Roa and Dolcetto through there."

He pointed to the hole in the wall he had just come from.

"What about you?" Laurel asked, desperation clear in her voice and on her face, as if leaving this man would ruin her.

"I'll get what I need from this kid and then we'll all meet up again." The man said as if it were that easy. Laurel appeared swayed to believe him.

"I can stay!" Laurel insisted. "I can stay and help you and – "

"As if I need a kid's help!" the man laughed, "you'll only get in my way if you stay here! So, scram!"

Laurel turned on her heels and ran. "Don't you dare die!" she shouted behind her. "if you do, I'll never forgive you!"

"We can't be having that," the man said after she had gone, "I need my right-hand man."

Edward Elric knew love when he saw it. That man looked at Laurel like Ed looked at Al, like he'd fight God and all his creations if it meant keeping her safe.

Major Alex Armstrong didn't particularly like violence, or killing, or war – this personal opinion causing quite the rift between he and his younger sister, Olivia – and had never liked it, but had liked it even less after the Ishvalan campaign. He liked to believe everyone had a little good in them, it helped him convince himself he still had a little good inside of him. Sometimes the only thing someone could do was convince themselves of something false to stop them from going insane.

No, Armstrong did not like killing. He did not want to kill these people in front of him.

They fought and fought and Armstrong knew eyes like theirs; they wouldn't give up. Armstrong shed tears upon seeing the Ishvalan girl, how could he not? She was like so many children he had slaughtered during the war and she had survived and for what reason? So, he could kill her now? Destroy her home?

"Don't fucking cry," She had snarled at him; she was blind and looking away from him, but her small companion had mocked him for crying and her body had tensed, had curled in on itself. "I don't live so you can feel sorry for yourself. Don't make me laugh."

"I will not fight you," Armstrong said, "I refuse. I won't kill you. So please, leave this place."

"We can't!" The man – Dolcetto – cried angrily, "and fuck! I really want to but we can't!"

"We won't abandon our boss," The one who had fought Armstrong – Roa – elaborated, his voice steady and unmoving.

"Don't throw your lives away for nothing!" Armstrong shouted.

"Our lives don't belong to us anymore!" The Ishvalan girl barked, "we happily belong to Greed! We aren't going to let him down or leave him behind!"

Staying when you were terrified just to keep a promise to someone you loved, that was to be their greatness.

"Major!" An officer called, "stand down! Führer Bradley is on his way!"

Laurel's blood ran cold.

"FUCK." Dolcetto yelled. "FUCK. WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?"

"It's that Fullmetal fuck." Laurel's wheezed out, her lungs felt like they were collapsing, her ribs felt like they were going to cave along with them. She was shaking and she felt both hot and cold at the same time. "He calling the dogs here and – and – Bradley! He started this! This whole fucking thing! He's here to get rid of the evidence."

If Dolcetto hadn't been there to catch her, Laurel wasn't sure she would have gotten back up. The Devil's Nest seemed so far away from the Military but here they were, coming back to finish the job they had started in Ishval.

Dolcetto and Roa shared a brief look and nodded.

Dolcetto pulled Laurel close to his chest, then heaving her onto his shoulders as he jumped on Roa's back.

"What are you doing?!" Laurel yelped.

"There's an air-vent right beside you," Dolcetto said pushing Laurel towards it. "Climb into it and run."

"NO," She shrieked, "NOT WITHOUT YOU."

"WE'LL BE RIGHT BEHIND YOU."

Laurel wheezed and struggled to push herself out of the vent, Dolcetto's hands always catching her and putting her back into place.

"NO, YOU'RE LYING."

Dolcetto laughed a little, sad and light. "You always were too smart for your own good, kid."

"DON'T," Laurel cried, hysterical, "IF YOU LEAVE ME I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU. I'LL HATE YOU FOREVER, UNTIL THE DAY I DIE."

"YEAH, AND IT WON'T BE THIS DAY," Dolcetto cried back, "I WON'T LET THAT HAPPEN."

"Laurel," Roa's voice had calmed her in the desert and it calmed her now. "Go. We'll be right behind you."

Roa's lies were always sweeter to Laurel's ears.

"Live on, Laurel." Dolcetto said. She couldn't remember the last time he had used her real name. Live on. Without us, he didn't say, but Laurel heard it.

"I hate you, Dolcetto." Laurel said. He couldn't remember the last time she had used his real name. I love you, she didn't say, but Dolcetto heard it.

Roa and Laurel had always been able to know each other without speaking. Everything they ever needed to say to each other had already been made known. There was a beauty in that, in having relationships that didn't require a goodbye.

Laurel crawled and crawled through the vent and she cried and cried. She had once believed she had used all her tears up but life was full of surprises.

She tried to ignore the screams of pain, the sound of cutting bone and falling bodies and spilt blood. She tried to ignore the feeling of her heart breaking.

We'll be right behind you. What a pretty lie.