Kimbley's POV~

Blasted snowstorm, I thought, frustrated. I couldn't see the ground at all from the old helicopter; the wind blowing snow in every direction was blinding. "Get this thing closer to the ground," I called to the pilot. He held up a thumbs-up, and the copter started a descending spiral. Gripping onto the hangers from the ceiling as not to fall, I gazed out the large open door. Suddenly, a small shape made its way into view through the storm. I narrowed my eyes to make out something like a house.

Sophia's POV~

I started looking around the room hurriedly, in a slight panic. I knew that I wasn't supposed to have been researching it, and the Fuhrer's secretary could have me as much as executed for the intel. "Well, um, the building exploded..." I murmured, trying not to say anything that I wasn't supposed to know. "Well duh, everyone knows that. We've got some hints that you know s'more." Envy demanded. The secretary held out a hand to stop him, then she turned to me.

"We understand that you have been associating with a man with a criminal record, Sophia. You must tell me, what has he told you about the matter?" I shook my head. "Nothing! Er, that is..." Great! I'm not even supposed to be talking to Kimbley, and I just admitted to it! Envy stood up from his chair, crossing the room to me.

"Look Sophie, we've got something like orders to extract just who knows anything about the-" "What he means to say is," the officer interrupted him, "the topic of Laboratory 5 is what got a very high ranking officer murdered. To only ensure the safety of you and the rest of the military, we have to find out just who holds this delicate information. What do you know?" I shook my head again.

"Really, I don't know anything. I was going to try and get some of it out of R- uh, someone else, but I didn't get anything." I explained hurriedly, trying to keep Ross' name clear. The secretary crossed her arms in front of her. "I'm sorry, Sophia, but we cannot take that as an answer. Too many things are against you. Your connection with Kimbley, your dealing with dangerous intel, and your own admitting to try and learn more about a topic that killed the Brigadier General."

I started walking backwards, only to bump into the door. I struggled to open the heavy door, but then remembered that Envy had locked it on his way in. "Sorry kid, but you're not getting out of here." Envy told me with the same poison in his voice as the one with regenerating skin.

"What, so you want me killed?" I questioned, trying to kill time so that I could find an escape route. Envy looked like he was about to say something demented, but the secretary held her hand up again and spoke. "We do not intend for anyone else to get killed... however, you have received countless warnings about the subject and nothing has helped to get you off of the subject. You already know too much for your own good. If things get out of hand, we will be sent to terminate those with such information, and that includes you."

Kimbley's POV~

"Get us to that building over there!" I called. "That's an awkward turn, boss! It'll give us about a seven minute delay before we can even start our descent!" I demanded. "Get us down fast, those are your only orders! Sophie could be dead for all we know!" "Excuse me sir, but who the hell is Sophie?" I didn't answer. It was a possibility that she wasn't even there, but possibilities were drying up.

Sophia's POV~

Crap. Envy looks like he seriously just wants to kill me, and the Secretary looks on the verge of torturing me, but there's nothing left for me to say! "This is getting dull, sir." Envy hissed sarcastically. The said-officer walked towards me with a gentle face, but piercing eyes. "You have to understand this, Sophia. Do you know why you're here?" "I'm telling you, there's nothing I know! You want me to admit something? Fine! I wanted to know more about Lab 5, because it's not everyday a State Alchemist goes into an abandoned building and it explodes, with him half-dead as a result!" I blurted out.

Looking slightly tired, she turned to Envy, who stalked up to me. As I was destined to discover the hard way, there was a fine blade in his hand. "We do this the easy way, then we do this the hard way. Looks like we're moving up to level two." he seethed, gripping my arm with one hand, pinning me to the wall, pressing the blade of his knife to my cheek, creating a deep cut. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying to just disappear. I don't want to do this. I can't do this. But there's nothing left for me to do.

Took a step back and landed a hard kick to my jaw, causing me to fall to my knees on the hard ground. He grabbed my hair, holding my head up for a straight shot in his kneeing my face. I collapsed to my hands and knees, feeling that my nose was definitely broken. Envy took another small step back, swinging his foot at my ribcage, once, twice, and went for a third time before I snatched his foot inches away from my already-wounded torso. "That's... enough... of that..." I breathed unsteadily. Envy smirked. "Nope." He slammed his foot back down to the earth, crushing the fingers that had just saved me from a bone-jolting impact. I winced, wondering how many fingers had just broken. He reached down, his devilish eyes meeting mine. "Lucky us. We don't have orders against us killing you, so welcome to level three!"

He wrapped two strong hands around my neck, cutting off my air. While I struggled to breathe, he used his grip to rise me back to my feet again, only to by kneed in the stomach, still under his fast hold, once, twice... three times... four... times...

Kimbley's POV~

Dead for all we know. No. Sophia was alive. She had to be. I narrowed my eyes and prepared for a sharp descent, which came moments later. "You can't jump right away, but go ahead and go for it when we're about thirteen feet off the ground! It's a blizzard out there and we can't take any chances!" The pilot shouted over the roaring 'thump-thump-thump' of the heli's blades.

The next few minutes were agonizing. The shack was slowly nearing us, but I couldn't jump just yet. After a few more moments passed, I thought to myself angrily, Hell with it all, and jumped.

The cold hit me like daggers, but I trudged through it. The wind blowing in the opposite direction sure wasn't helping, and progress was slow. I almost wondered if staying on the helicopter would have been quicker, but this way, I felt like I was doing something. Doing something to get to her.

Sophia's POV~

He didn't kill me. I almost wish he had, the pain I was in. I had no idea how many bones I'd broken, and I think that if I knew, my spirit would break, too. Except, it was already beyond self-repair.

"Still not dead." Envy groaned. "How about you simply tell us your information about the 5th Laboratory, and we can get you out of here." the secretary suggested.

"I'm... telling... you-" I paused to let more blood flow out of my mouth, "I... don't... know... anything!" I wiped my mouth on my sleeve, leaning up against the back wall for support. Envy sighed and snatched his blade from off the floor, walking toward me. Messing with it with his fingers, turning it at blinding speeds, he muttered, "We didn't have to go this far, but due to your... annoyance, I really just want to get this over with." My eyes widened as I watched his nimble fingers flick the hard knife into a club hold.

He lunged, but it was sloppy, and I was able to move out of the way. The knife came down again, and I raised my probably-broken leg and kicked it out of his hand. "So you've got some spunk after all, huh?" Envy called out enthusiastically, pounding his foot on the handle of the blade on the ground, which was immediately flicked back up to his hand. "Too bad it's about to go to waste!"

Kimbley's POV

I was so close to it. Just a few more steps, and I'd be there. I'd break down that door and find Sophia. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a flaw in my plan, because right before my fingers could touch the wooden panels of the door, a blob of gravity-defying liquid appeared before me. Blinking as if the weird thing would disappear, I quickly pulled my hand out of the mysterious liquid.

"It looks like we have an uninvited guest. I'll take good care of you, Kimbley." the liquid told me. I blinked again. How does it know my name..?

The liquid shrunk into the snow, completely vanishing. Scouring the ground, I saw that the snow around me had tinted slightly blue. Blinking in stunned realization, I jumped back right before the strange liquid spiked out of the ground where I'd stood just a moment ago. I had to squint and hold a hand above my eyes to even see the thing through the blizzard, but I could see it disappearing again, thinning out across the barren wasteland. That's when I got an idea.

Fumbling through the fierce snowstorm, I made my way to an edge of the shack, finding something almost like a bar sticking out of it. Grinning, I used to give my the leverage I needed to get on top of the house. "That's not going to work. I'm a tad smarter than that." the eerily feminine voice called from- what do you know, right in front of me. The liquid suddenly flattened out across the shack's steep roof, causing me to slip off, landing back in the snow.

Spitting the stuff out of my mouth, I clasped my hands together and reached an arm out to touch the wall of the shack, but the liquid fell right on top of me.

I couldn't breathe, and the inside of the liquid was starting to feel unpleasant to say the least. I scrambled to get out, but I wasn't making much progress. I was knew that soon enough, I would suffocate in there. Then this thing would let go of my corpse and run off somewhere, and someone will come and bury my body eleven feet under the snowy surface of these mountains. And after all that, no one will help get Sophia back home, because no one knows where she is.

But I do; she's ten feet in front of me, with only a stupid wall and a weird blob of stinging liquid standing in my way! I guess that settles it. There is no way in hell I'm going to die here.

I clawed my way, inch by inch, slowly peeling myself from the closing-in, strange thing. And eventually, I got my arms out. I pressed my shaking hands together, and reached out for the shack. My arm stretched and my fingers strained, and finally, it exploded.

The explosion blew back the liquid from me, and I was out for good. Breathing hard to make up for my lack of air, I looked up and saw two people. One was a tall male who held a knife, and was holding the other person up by their shirt collar. That other person was a girl, and she had slash marks all across her arms, neck, and face, and was bleeding a lot. Fresh blood even stained her jaw. Even with her eyes closed and red tainting her dark brown hair, there was no doubt about it being Sophie.

My eyes widened in horror. The strange-featured person looked at me in exasperation. "C'mon Sloth, you said you would take care of any unexpected guests! Geez, now I've got two idiots on my hands?" he whined, throwing his free arm up in the air to show his annoyance. Suddenly, he stopped and took a good look at me.

"Hey, I know you! You're the Kimbley guy! What a surprise. You'll be much more useful than this piece of trash." he remarked, literally throwing Sophia over his shoulder and walking toward me. I could feel rage burning in my eyes upon seeing what this person had done to her. I clapped my hands together and stretched my arm out in front of me to grasp the stranger's shoulder, and an explosion went off.

When the dust settled, the first thing I could see was the figure's face, grinning at me. I looked at the shoulder which should have been burned to a crisp. The bone and muscle were visible, and a red light flickered around the wound like tiny lightning bolts. Soon, the flesh was restored as if nothing had happened. I blinked in confusion at the sight. A regenerating body, huh? What a strange thing. I thought to myself in bizarre wonder. I took a step back and looked at the monster-like creature in the eye.

"What are you?" I questioned. "Envy!" he answered delightfully, his entire face portraying some strange happiness, right before his foot made contact with my face, and I was knocked back a few feet. I got back up, wiping a small stream of blood from my mouth. I took a step back and edged a few inches across the wall.

"Okay now, Envy. I'm only looking to get the girl back home." I murmured. "Yeah, I don't think so. She's got some info we need to destroy." Envy snapped. I stopped in my tracks. "Information? What, like Lab 5?" I inquired. Envy's expression stiffened. "Yeah that."

I found a half-smile on my face, and I chuckled softly. Envy blinked. "What the... what's wrong with you?" he demanded. I hung my head behind me. "Sophie doesn't know anything. But I'm sure she already told you that much. I mean, by the way she's all sliced and crunched..." I casted a glance at her tattered body. "...she must have spilled her guts to you." I murmured.

Envy looked at the girl he'd just thrown as if he was irritably waiting for her to come back to life. Probably so that he could just kick her ass again. "Well, if that's the case," Envy began with a heave of a sigh, turning to face me with a demented look in his eye, "I guess I'll just have to take you!"