"You're being awful quiet. You alright back there?" Ed asked.
"Huh?" Elyza said as she looked up. "Oh, yeah. I thought I said not to worry about me?"
Ed looked back at her. She and Winry had the same sad expression in their blues eyes. Seeing little Elicia and Mrs. Gracia mourning Hughes like that had upset them both. Ed had noticed Elyza's tendency to swallow pain and try to act like she was made of stone. Her eyes, however, were like open books. Every drop of agony that she denied feeling was overflowing in the oceans of blue. Every now and then, she'd start fidgeting with her Ouroboros charm on her necklace and smile a little. Ed still don't understand it but it seemed like she was using her memories of Greed to cope with the world around her. Ed simply couldn't wrap his mind around how she could find comfort in a homunculus like that. The homunculi weren't exactly the most wonderful things in the world. How could she be so attached to one?
"Hey, by the way, what happened to that little Xingese prince that was tagging along?" Elyza asked, as she lit a cigarette that she'd bummed off of some man a few minutes ago.
"I don't know. He just kinda ran off." Ed said.
"Hmm? Well, I hope he didn't get himself killed. He was pretty cool." Elyza said, looking up.
While the four walked onward, Envy, Gluttony, and Lust were all grouped up in a dark room filled with cages that contained chimeras. Gluttony was sitting in the floor and Lust was sitting on his shoulder. Envy was still disguised at a soldier.
"The Colonel is digging around for information about Hughes's death?" Lust asked.
"Yeah." Envy replied.
"I wonder if he's under covered anything?" Lust said.
"Maybe." Envy said, as he undid his disguise and turned back into this normal self in one quick burst of red lightening. "What do you do?"
"We moved him back to Central to keep an eye on him. Can't he just behave? He's a precious candidate for sacrifice." Lust said.
"Speaking of which, did you find anything out about that little pink haired annoyance that I was having problems with the other day?" Envy asked.
"Yes. As it turns out, she does use a transmission circle. They are engraved on the charms of her bracelets." Lust said.
"Damn it! I knew I should have killed that little brat! She knows too much. That loudmouth Greed told her all kinds of stuff. She might be a problem." Envy said in anger.
"Not so fast. She might still be a candidate." Lust said.
"What?" Envy hissed. "How?"
"The same way that Roy Mustang is. We have someone keeping an eye on her so she doesn't cause any problems. Don't kill her until we get confirmation on her, understood?"
"Fine." Envy said, dejected. "By the way, did you get any information out of your boyfriend?"
Gluttony was trying to feed a chimera a bone but it just wasn't working out of him.
"Nothing." Lust said. "He's either a born idiot or a clueless follower."
"We need a plan to keep Mustang off of us. Don't worry. I'll come up with something."
Meanwhile, Elyza had got mad at Ed again and wandered off.
"Stupid dwarf. I don't know who he thinks he is. Bossing me around like that. What a jerk." she mumbled angrily to herself.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out and a male scream. Elyza ran to the site of the sound and stumbled across a sad scene. A young man, probably about her age, was standing over another, slightly younger man who had clearly been shot in the shoulder a few times. Two soldiers were around them and Elyza couldn't help but flashback to the Devil's Nest.
"These are the ones who were caught trying to break into the Furer's office, right?" one of the soldiers said.
"Yes. If I understand correctly, they are both chimeras." the other said.
Elyza's heart started racing as one of the chimeras groaned loudly in pain. They were just letting him suffer!? Those animals! She grit her teeth as she grabbed a knife from her belt. She shot one and the other began to panic. He pointed his gun at the chimera standing over the injuried one. Elyza then ran up behind the remaining solider and put her knife to his throat.
"Lower your weapon and step away from the chimeras." she whispered softly in the soldier's ear.
The solider slowly lowered his gun and started to breathe heavily in fear.
"You got a family? Nod or shake your head but be careful not to cut yourself. I'm not moving this knife." she said.
The soldier nodded carefully and Elyza sighed.
"Get out of here and don't you dare bring back up looking for us. I spared your life once. I won't do it again. Your friend ain't dead yet. I suggest you both get out of my sight if you don't want me to change that." she hissed.
She released him and he ran off with his wounded friend in tow. Elyza turned to the two chimeras.
"Follow me." she said.
The two followed her in an alleyway. The younger one was having to use the other for support but they kept up better than expected. She lead them to an abandoned ground level apartment that had boards over the windows and took out one of her knives. She jammed into the crack between the door and the doorway before throwing all of her body weight onto the knife to unseal the door.
"Okay. Let's go, boys. In here now." she said.
They followed her and she closed the door and used alchemy to seal it. She turned to the two men behind her and smiled a little as she looked over them.
The younger boy was kind of pale compared to the other. He had short, curly light brown hair and his eyes were closed at the moment. He has a little stubble on his face and looked about 16 years old. He had a bow and arrow on his back. He was dressed in a white shirt, a black jacket, and brown pants.
The other one was a little older and had darker brown and was short on the side with the front spiked up into a fuax hawk. He had one green eye and one blue one. He had a scar that went up his right cheek. He was wearing a red and black shirt and black pants with combat boots. He had a little brown beard on his chin that almost reminded Elyza of a goat.
"Thanks. You saved us both." the older one said.
"No problem. I couldn't just let you two get killed out there." she said, going over to the center of the room and yanking up one of the floorboards.
She pulled out a backpack then took out some gauze, rubbing alcohol, and a pack of cigarettes before going over to the younger one.
"Lay down and let me tend to this." she said.
"A little bossy, are we?" he replied.
"You wanna bleed to death or what? I'm not exactly known for my bedside manner, kid. I'm ex military, not a nurse." Elyza said.
The boy laid down and Elyza began to clean the wound in his shoulder. He opened his eyes to reveal deep pools of green. She smiled and continued to care for him.
"Why? Did you say that you were military?" the older one said.
"Yeah. Why?" she replied.
"What rank?"
"State alchemist."
"Wait! Are you Elyza Forte, the Silver Petal Alchemist?" he asked.
"Shit, my name has been everywhere, huh?" she laughed.
"You really are?" the younger one asked in shock.
"I am. What's the big deal? I'm not that famous." Elyza laughed as she started to wrap up the boy's shoulder.
"Bullshit!" the older boy said.
"Huh?" Elyza replied.
"Rumor says that you robbed one of the higher officers then stole a car and disappeared off the radar. People say it was the most well done crime in the last 50 years!" the younger boy said.
"Meh, I guess so." Elyza said
"Awesome." the younger boy said.
"Yeah. So since you two already know me, I wouldn't waste our time with my name and stuff. Go ahead. Who are you two?" she said.
"Just call me Batty. It's a little nickname of mine." the oldest one said.
"I'm Chris. It's really nice to meet you." the younger one said.
"Nice. I overheard those soldiers say that you were chimeras. Just by the way, what kind of chimeras are you?" she asked as she finished up with Chris's shoulder.
"As the name states, I'm a bat. I'm a fruit bat to be specific." Batty said.
"Interesting! What about you?" she asked Chris.
Chris turned blood red and looked away as he sat up.
"I don't remember." he mumbled.
"Don't you lie! You know but you're too chicken shit to say it!" Batty shouted.
"Shut your mouth, Ben!" Chris screamed.
Suddenly, Batty had Chris by the throat and was holding him up off the ground.
"Do not call me that! I hate that name!" Batty hissed.
"Hey, you two knock it off now!" Elyza barked.
Batty dropped Chris to the ground and stared at him in anger.
"Little piss ant..." Batty said in an angry growl.
"He doesn't have to tell me right now if he doesn't want to. You don't have to go straight up psycho on him." Elyza said.
"Who are you calling a psycho, you -!" Batty yelled, drawing back to hit her.
One of Elyza's knives stabbed into his leg and he grabbed wounded appendage in pain. He looked up at her and she had a gun pointed at him.
"Listen up. I want to help you both but I don't like bullshit. Show me respect or live on the streets alone. Makes no difference to me." she said firmly.
Batty looked down and then back at her.
"So you want us to work for you?" he asked.
"I need someone to watch my back so I can get intel. My family is dead and i want answers." she said.
"You want us to be your bodyguards?" Chris asked, surprised.
"My bodyguard and best friend was kidnapped and killed by the military along the rest of your friends. I consider myself to be a decent fighter but I'm not exactly bullet proof. I'm very loyal to my team mates and I'll never leave you in the dust. What do you say?" she said.
They both looked at each other then back at her.
"Consider us a team. My brother and I are at your service." Chris said.
Elyza smirked then pulled the knife out of Batty's leg. She wiped it off on an old sheet that was in the floor then grabbed the gauze and wrapped the injury.
"Sorry about stabbing you. It's kind of an instinct." she said as she finished up her work on his leg.
"It's fine. I was out of hand. I'm just glad that knife went in my leg and not my chest or something. You have a rep for a bad ass." Batty said.
Elyza blushed a little and Batty smiled.
"You know, I think I'm gonna like this little set up. I usually don't like being bossed around by but you seem like a good leader." he said.
"I'll try. Now then, we need to hit the road. I just assaulted two soldiers and you two are clearly wanted to. We'll come back after the heat dies down and see what we can do about finding out my information. For now though, Central is a bad place to be." she said.
"What do you have in mind, boss?" Batty said.
Elyza smirked as she remembered Dolcetto calling Greed that all the time then looked at the door.
"I think the Midget Alchemist said that he was going to his home town for something. Maybe I can get them to let us tag along for a bit. Come on, boys." Elyza said, putting on the backpack and standing up on a table.
"Where are you going?" Chris asked.
"The streets are too dangerous for the time being. We're gonna have to get creative." she said, opening an air vent.
Some dust fell down onto her and she coughed a little before grabbing the vent's cover and heaving herself up into the ceiling.
"Shit, that's some serious upper body strength you have!" Batty laughed.
"Not to brag. Now then, come on." she said, offering her hand to them.
Chris took her hand and she pulled him up before holding her hand down to Batty who refused it before jumping up and doing the same thing she did. It was dark in the vent and Elyza sighed heavily.
"Damn it. I can't see a thing and I don't have any kind of light." she said.
"Here. Let me lead. I'm a bat. I can see in the dark. You just tell me which way to go. " Batty said.
"Nice! It's only two lefts then a climb up and we're on the roof. Can you do that?" she said.
"You bet. Just stay close." Batty said as he started forward.
As they crawled through the vent, Chris looked back at her a little.
"By the way, I'm ready to tell you what I was fused with." he said softly.
"Great. Let's hear it. Don't worry. The family I was talking about was mostly chimeras. I love your kind more than normal humans." she said.
Chris sighed heavily.
"Okay. Well, they fused with a -."
Suddenly, a loud noise happened and their little line stopped.
"Damn it!" Batty yelled.
"What happened?" Chris asked.
"I ran into a wall."
"I thought you could see in the dark?" Elyza said.
"Well, night vision doesn't make up for the lack of common sense." Chris mumbled.
"Hey, up yours, Chris!" Batty shouted.
"Alright. Calm down, you two. Let's just get out of here first. Batty, go up, knock that cover loose then help us up, okay?" Elyza said.
"I'm on it!" Batty said as he stood up into the vertical duct. "I can't get it off."
Chris sighed and Elyza laughed a little before handing Chris her gun. Chris waited for Batty to stop being over-dramatic and move before he aimed the gun at the vent and shot it loose. All three of the criminals climbed out and dusted themselves off.
"Nice shooting, Llama Man!" Batty said loudly.
"Llama?" Elyza said as she tilted her head to the side.
Chris's face turned red and he closed his eyes tightly as he looked away.
"Damn it, Bat." he muttered angrily.
"What?" Batty said, looking around confused.
"Ah, they fused you with a llama. That's pretty awesome! I've never met such a unique chimera." Elyza said with a smile.
Chris's eyes flew open and he looked at her in shock.
"Y-you don't think it's kind of stupid? I mean llamas aren't good for much."
"Llamas spit!" Batty screamed in amusement as he threw his arms into the air.
"Shut up, Bat man!" Chris hissed as he began to blush again.
Batty laughed hysterically and Chris punched his arm. Elyza smiled. They had some much personality and life to them.
"Okay, boys. Follow me. We need to locate that little angry dwarf. Let's go to the train station." Elyza said as she used her bracelets to transmute a bridge from the top of the building they were on over to the next one.
"Man, we gotta walk?" Batty sighed.
"It'll do you some good, you lazy bum." Chris said, still giving him the same annoyed look.
"Hey, who are you calling lazy?" Batty demanded.
"You, idiot. I thought bats had good hearing." Chris said.
"Guys, come on. We need to move forward so calm down a little. Don't make me come over there and smack you, Batty." Elyza said.
"Alright. Sorry. I guess I should back off before he gets mad and spits at me." Batty said as he followed Elyza onto the bridge.
"I swear to God!" Chris screamed.
"Just come on." Elyza sighed.
Chris scoffed and then followed them onto the bridge. As they walked, they began to open up together and it seemed like they had a lot in common. Maybe the future wouldn't be so dark with this two by her side.
