Hi! Okay, now on with the chapter!


The door seemed deisintegrate (A/N: Yes, I realize that is spelled wrong, but I couldn't find the right one. :/) in a burst of light that expelled the energy of a transmutation. Keari had once savored the feel of that energy, passing through her finger tips, giving her the power of a god. But, that was before that power had taken her world. It was only equivilent exchange after all.

"Keari!" Myne shouted from across the room, tearing her eyes unwillingly from the light.

The door vanished, taking the light with it, and a tall man stepped through the now open doorway. He was burly, with a neck the size of a tree trunk and arms that could compare with Armstrong's. Although, whereas Armstrong was all dignity and perfection, he was more ruggid and less polished looking with a dark, matted beard. It wasn't just the beard that gave him a less than civilized feel; his eyes were wild and the right kept twitching. It unnerved her in a way that she hadn't felt in a long time.

Myne appeared to be trying to mold her body into the wall, eyes wide and scared. The man scanned the room, passing over Myne completely, until his gaze came to rest upon Keari. She reflexively masked her emotions, wiping them off her features. As much as she hated to admit it, her hands were shaking out of fear of the insane gaze.

"Ungh," the man grunted, motioning for her to stand. Using the wall as a brace, she stood, much to the dismay of her protesting stumps. Well, here we have a real live neanderthall, she thought irritatedly.

"Keari," Myne said shakily, apprehension creeping into her tone.

Keari's heart clenched at her plea. "It's okay, Myne," she assured her, looking back over her shoulder as the man herded her out into the light. "I'll be fine." I hope, she added silently. Then, she was outside, and she could no longer see Myne. She was worried about her, but that was nothing compared to the fear she felt for herself at the moment.


Ed and Alphonse walked back to the Rockbell's house, deep in thought. Winry was standing worriedly at the counter, biting her lip and tapping her index finger against it.

"You're back," she breathed as sigh of relief, then her face fell again, "But, you didn't find her, did you?"

"No," Edward muttered, scowling although it hurt him to see her hurt.

"Sorry," Al said kindly.

"Oh. Um, Ed? Al?"

"Yeah?" he met her troubled eyes.

"How much do you know about Keari?"

His brow furrowed thoughtfully. "Hmm... Not much, actually. We met her on the street once then found her getting the shit beat out of her by a gang. Her automail was ruined so we took her to you."

"Oh," Winry said disappointedly, as if she had been hoping for more information...

"Winry. What did you find?"

"I-I didn't mean to pry. I just thought that something in her things might point to who took her. And, and, I found this," she thrust a brown leather bound book at them, almost dropping it in the process.

Ed opened it reflexively, feeling the soft leath brush his finger tips, and he proceeded to read.

First of all, I'm going to let you know that I don't want to write in this, but the healer in our village says this is a good idea. She says it will help me get over my mental pain, but, to be quite honest, she terrifies me. I'm only doing this because I think she'll eat my face if I don't.

I suppose I had better start simple, lay out all the facts. One, my parents are dead. Two, my older sister and brother are dead. Three, my sister Rehara is alive. And, four, we are going to find an alchemy teacher.

That seems to be it, for now. My brother and sister are going to come back. They have to. I truly believe that we can bring them back. I mean, how could it fail if we want it so much? Rehara keeps telling me that mommy and daddy will come home, but I know differently. I know that they're dead, and I know how they died.

"What is this?" Ed asked through clenched teeth, voice rough with emotion.

"Read the title page," Winry replied softly.

"Property of Keari," Al murmurred, reading over his brother's shoulder.

"I'm going to keep this, Al," Edward said, flipping the book closed. "It could give us information on who would kidnap her."

"So what are you going to do now?" Winry asked, suspicion coloring her tone.

"As much as I hate to say it," Ed scowled, "I think we have to go to the military. Damn, that girl, finding her is getting to be more trouble than she's worth!"

"Brother, you don't mean that," Al chided him.

Ed scowled deeper because he was right.


"It appears the Fullmetal pipsqueak has gone to the military," Envy remarked.

Lust frowned, crossing her arms over her large chest. The dim light coming in through the windows should made it hard to see her movements clearly, but to his enhanced senses, it wasn't difficult. "Well, we can't have him interfering, now can we," she said.

"Can I eat him?" Gluttony asked from the corner where he munched happily on the remains of a rat.

"No, remember, he's an important sacrifice."

Envy looked distainfully at the plump homunculus. "Father told me to tell Wrath to keep a tight leash on that Flame Colonel. We don't want him to meddle any more than he already is." Envy look of distain turned to one of disgust. "Humans."

"Yes," Lust leaned on Gluttony's shoulder. "What should we do?"

"Hmmm..." he murmurred, scratching his neck thoughtfully. "Let's put it in charge of our beloved 'Fuhrer.' We can keep tabs on it and keep the military dogs from assuming anything." He smirked.

Lust nodded, lips curling into a cruel smile. "Very good, Envy. You should go see Wrath to let him know of our plans."

Envy nodded, changing into the form of a blond soldier. "I'll be back. Report back to Father what I told you."


The light was blinding to Keari's eyes, but the man, or ape, as she had now taken to calling him, didn't give her much time to adjust before he wrapped a cloth band tightly around her eyes and tied it in the back of her head. He then followed by grabbing her wrists and tying them behind her back. She had trouble judging the distance between the prison she shared with Myne and their destination for the simple reason that she kept tripping. It was hard to keep balance without her arms. After a few moments, the sound of people talking alerted her to their arrival at the ape's destination. She briefly considered making a run for it, but realized that she couldn't bring herself to leave Myne. Not to mention that there might be more people trapped here. Still, even after she had found the resolve to stand her ground, she could not stop her hands from shaking.

"Good, Omart," said a slimy voice. "You brought the girl."

Keari kept her face blank, but she had a feeling she wouldn't like whoever the own of the voice was. "Ughn," Ape, now she knew as Omart, grunted thrusting her forward. She almost fell, but then she felt a strong, thin-fingered grip replace the ape's on the tops of her arms. She cringed at the touch.

"Alright, girl," the man murmurred menacingly, stroking her cheek, "No trouble or you'll regret it."

Keari resisted the earge to jerk the man off, and remained silent.

The man led her closer to the voices, and thrust her threw something. A curtain, maybe, she wondered, wishing that she could see where they were going. The room became deathly silent as the man reached up, and not gently, yanked the blindfold from her face.

The first thing Keari noticed was that they were in a tent. A very large one. The next thing she noticed was that it was full of people...and they were all staring at her.

"This is the girl?" a blond man asked. He was tall, but not abnormally, with blond curly hair and bright blue eyes. A dark haired woman stood beside him, eyeing her like she was a piece of meat. The look, plus the bystander's stares, made her shiver involuntarily; she was badly outmatched, outnumbered, and outskilled. Yup. The odds weren't in her favor. What are all these people gathered here for?

"Yes," the man who had led her here replied. He was of an average height with black hair, and mucus green eyes, not kidding. He even looked untrustworthy!

"Hmmm..." the blond man walked around her, as if to inspect her. "A little, tiny thing, isn't she, Lawrence?"

Keari's eye twitched.

"Oh, yes, sir," the black haired man, Lawrence, said.

Flen, the blond man, walked over to her and grabbed her chin, jerking it up to look her in the eye. "Listen, girl. We have some questions, and you are going to answer them. Understand?"

Keari dropped her mask, changing tactics. This was what she had been waiting for. "What kind of questions will you be asking me?" she asked, glaring at the man with frigid silvery blue eyes, fear mixing with anger. Of course, she wouldn't allow him to see the fear.

He narrowed his eyes at her, meeting her severe gaze, "Questions about your involvement with the military. Your connection to the Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric and his brother, Alphonse Elric."

Her eyes widened in shock, and she stood frozen for a moment. Then she burst out laughing. She laughed until she tears came to her eyes, and her breath came in painful pants. Everyone was staring at her like she was insane. "I-I don't- know-anything," Keari panted, fighting another burst of laughter. Maybe she was. She wouldn't normally do something like that; it must be shock.

Flen scowled at her. "We. Do. Not. Buy. It."

All thoughts of laughing left her mind as it hit her. They were looking for information that she didn't have. But, they didn't know she didn't have it, and, judging from the looks on their faces, they weren't going to be convinced.

"First question, what were the Elric's doing in Risembool?" Flen asked with a stern gaze.

"Taking me to an automail mechanic."

"What's your connection to them?"

"They took me to get automail when mine broke. That's it."

"Why did they take you to this particular automail engineer when there are so many in Rush Valley?"

"I don't know. I think they thought that she would charge less."

"Why would the Elric's waste time helping you? They are working on some kind of project; why would they stay in Risembool with you?" He raised and eyebrow at her suspiciously.

Keari's eyes widened with surprise. Why had they stayed with her? Why had he stayed with her? "I-I don't know."

"Why is it you're so important to them? What do they possibly have to gain by taking you in? You're just a girl."

"I don't know."

"What are they planning?"

"I. Don't. Know."

Flen looked at her for a brief moment before giving a slight nod to the woman at his side. She grinned, pulling a knife out her belt at an unearthly rate; she lunged at Keari. Keari jerked herself backwards to avoid the woman's blade, but her back rammed into the table, sending spazms of pain througout her body. The moment of hesitation was enough for the woman to strike.

The woman, using a skillful precision that said she had done this many times before, swiftly slid her knife into Keari's face, slicing a thin path through her skin. The jerked from above her left eyebrow, passing over the bridge of her nose, to the middle of her right cheek.

Keari glared them all with her right eye, being that her left had been temporarily blinded by the blood trickling steadily from where the woman had cut her. She scowled, causing a sharp pain in her face as the movement tugged at the edges of the wound.

Flen smiled serenely at her. "Let's try this again, shall we?"


Phew, this one took me forever to write! I could not get it write, not to mention that I saved it in the Doc Manager but then tried to do the rest of the chapter, but it didn't save so I had to rewrite it. That made no sense at all. I had to rewrite half the chapter because it didn't save, that's better. Anyway, thank you soooo much to all my reviewers! I love you all so much. I literally was crying from some of the good things you guys had to say. So thank you! PS: This rewritten chapter is dedicated to Nayru Elric for pointing out Keari's Mary-Sue-ness. I hopefully have made it a better, but I can still detect an air of MS-ness. Let me know if she's turning into a Mary-Sue! I may have to destroy my computer if I can't save her from the perfection!

THANKS! NOW CLICK THE LITTLE BLUE BUTTON TO SAVE A KITTEN AND MAKE AL VERY HAPPY!