Anything FMA related belongs to H/A any other characters and story belong to me.

Enjoy.

Chapter 10: When I grow up...

--- Welcome to the world of normal P.O.V guys, have a nice trip ---

Ed and Al had decided to board the train to Rush Valley, that was in the South and they weren't really too sure about where this "Devil's Nest" was, although they were sure that there was a pub called that somewhere in Dublith. But first they would check things on the way there, just in case. Edward leaned against the window, watching the world pass on by outside, a deep frown plastered on his face. He wasn't happy. Not at all. He found it annoying enough to have to keep an eye on Elle in case Envy showed up again to get rid of her, but no, she had to get herself kidnapped by some chimera and taken to "the boss".

On top of that, there was that little feeling in his gut, that he was being watched. Not at this point in time, no. But when he was talking to that lady who said she saw the chimera run off with Elle, he knew that someone else was listening in to the conversation. Who the person was, that was what was bugging him. He didn't think that it was just some curious person, after what has happened to the loony blonde girl the past few days, it was no wonder he felt that it was someone he knew and should be keeping Elle from.

"Hey, brother" Al whispered, grasping his brother's attention. Ed glanced over to him, his frown not shifting at all, in fact it had deepened as he had pondered about whom it was that was watching them. "Do you think she's OK?" His younger brother asked.

Edward's eyes softened a little as he turned his head back towards the window. "She'll be fine, her stupidity will no doubt get her out of trouble"

"Brother-"

"Don't worry about her Al, she's stupid, but she managed to survive an encounter with Envy" He said quickly, waving a hand at his brother and slumping back in his seat. Al sighed and joined his brother looking outside.

---

"Mam, it's for a trip! And Uncle Nigel offered to let us stay at his house so..." Frances held her hands together and looked her parents straight in the eye, Richard nodding vigorously in the background, trying his best to support her. The girl's mother glanced up at her dad, a cautious glint in her eyes.

"I don't remember getting a letter or phone call from uncle Ni-"

"Ah, that is where you are wrong, mother dearest!" Frances blurted, presenting a piece of paper to her. Her mother frowned for a moment, before snatching the piece of paper from Frances's hands. Un-folding it, she began to scan it along with her father. Most of the writing was in bold writing, clearly trying to stress how important it is that my lovely relative attends this trip and also you'll only have to pay for the flight as Uncle Nigel will provide for everything else.

France's parents glanced down at her as she gazed with big, bright pleading eyes, a long smile curled up her cheeks. They looked at her, not believing her at all. But with that look, they caved in. Folding the paper back up and tucking it away in her breast pocket, her mother sighed. "Fine, but I'm phoning Nigel first to see that he really is looking after you"

Frances bowed and held a hand out to the phone that sat on table amongst all of the manga books and DVDs they had been looking through earlier. "Be my guest, he was the one who had offered" As both of her parents turned to the phone, Frances spun around to Richard and gave him the thumbs up, which he returned with a small smile.

"Hello, Nigel, it's Jill" France's mum said into the phone, her dad stood beside her.

"Hey, Jill. I was actually expecting you to call, it's about me inviting my lovely niece round here along with her friends, isn't it?"

"Well. Yes, actually. I was phoning to just check that she wasn't making it up"

"Oh, pish-posh. I invited her over and for a specific reason too"

Jill looked taken aback. "Really, what for?"

"Frances has been telling me how she has been wound up in her art work and Elle's disappearance, along with her friends. So, I told her she could come and see me for a little while and bring her friends so they can catch up on their work without having to worry so much about their friend"

France's mum arched a brow. "How is going to visit you going to help them not worry about Elle, she's their friend"

"I have a knack at helping people forget their problems until it really matters"

"But it does mat-"

"Whoops, what's that Jill? You're breaking up – krrrrrrrrrrr – I'll t-t-t-talk to you lat- click"

Jill frowned. "That was awful acting and he just hung up on me"

She turned to her husband and began to talk quietly to him, obviously debating whether to let their daughter to go or not. Frances's eyes darted between the two as the spoke, her smile stretching and stretching as they spoke, her eyes sparkling with hope. After a while, her dad sighed and then grinned straight after, glancing at his daughter along with her mother. Seconds later, they nodded in unison, small smiles appearing on their faces as their daughter jumped over to them and wrapping her arms around them tightly. "Thank you so much! You've got no idea what this means to us!" She yelled in a happy tone, her parents chuckling afterward.

Richard smirked in the background as Frances was pried from the two by her dad. She stood before them, smiling for a while in silence, before she rubbed her hands together and began to stalk out of the room. "Right then! I'll go and quickly pack, Micky's dad is going to drop us off in an hour!" She called, rushing upstairs and into her messy bedroom. Her parent's jaws dropped and their eyes wondered over to Richard, who shrugged and lifted up the backpack he held in hand.

Frances grinned insanely as she dumped a bunch of different clothes in her bag, along with a few comics, a sketchpad and some cans of deodorant – you never know when one is going to smell. "I can't believe this, Amy!" She giggled, snapping her gaze to her cat, curled up under the radiator. Amy lifted her head up lazily, yawned and set it back down again. Frances sighed and rolled her eyes, stuffing her toothbrush and toothpaste into her bag – everything in her room was already set for her to go, whether her parents would allow her to or not. And she only had one thing that she really needed to pack now. Amy. Oh yes, the cat was coming with her, she couldn't live without her – and knowing that she was going to meet Alphonse Elric, she thought she'd treat him.

Putting a few bags of cat food into her bag, Frances zipped it shut and pulled the large carrier over her shoulders. She then bent down and scooped Amy up in her arms, the cat protesting at first but soon settling and allowing her eyes to slip shut. As Frances went to go downstairs and wait for Micky and his dad, she caught sight of herself in the mirror. She was wearing her large, stripped hoodie with chewed holes in the sleeves, jeans and had recently re-dyed her hair purple again, so it remained vibrant. She had to go there so she was recognisable to Elle, it had been a while since they last saw each other after a while and Frances knew that she changes fast.

"Alright Elle, I'm comin' to getcha!"

---

Amazingly enough, Elle was left somewhat confused after her last encounter with Truth. She was sure she was dreaming when she saw him, but how did she know really. But she was going to do her best to just ignore Truth from now on, he seemed to having fun whenever he messed with her head like that and that just made Elle think that she was brought here purely for his own entertainment. Which she hoped wasn't true.

Rubbing her eyes, she pushed herself up off the floor and swayed around as she made it to a stand. "Slleeeepp is the life for me~" She sang, seeming a little dazed, like she'd been drugged or hit with a blunt object. Leaning on the wall, she remained there until her head had stopped spinning and her legs didn't feel like strawberry flavoured jelly anymore. She smiled as her cheek rested against the filthy wall, some muck smudging onto her skin. "Ah pe-ace and quietos, lovely" She muttered in a gleeful tone. She had a good feeling at the moment, she didn't know why though. She put it to blame at whatever drug they had given her, if they did give her one that is. Unless Truth decided he'd try to make me high for the kicks... which is also a hiddly doodily possibility. She told herself, scratching at her chin as she thought it over.

"I wonder what woke me up, 'cause I sure as hell can sleep for England when I'm tired and I sure do feel sle-" She was cut off when there was a loud crash from outside. She blinked and rubbed her eyes again as more crashes and a few high pitched screams sounded from behind her metal door. Elle tilted her head to one side, her eyes half open and with black bags beneath from being so tired. "Why are there girls screaming? I thought this place was run by men..."

There was silence for a while and then another scream, from right next to the door keeping Elle in her prison. Her lips pursed together, matching the shape of a fish's lips. "Mr. Guard Dude, you OK? You sound like you've just have a kick to the groin..." She commented, pushing herself from the wall and looking timidly at the door, worried after not getting a reply from the guard outside. There was complete silence for a while. Elle bit her lip. "Uh-Oh, I think the game's killed him..."

There was then a small click from the lock in the door and it was swung open. The light was a little too bright for Elle at first and caused her to look away, her arms shielding her eyes until they had finally adjusted. Slowly turning her face back to the door, she found a women standing there. She was rather tall and very curvy, with long, wavy hair. She was smirking as she ran her hand through her hair and stepping into Elle's cell, her heels clopping with every step.

Elle looked behind the women and found the guard sprawled out on the floor, his eyes wide and his mouth hung open. The girl pouted and looked back up at the women, who had stopped a couple of feet away from her. "Dude... you must have taken out that guy's balls like wak a moles" Elle said, pointing at the man who used to be her guard.

The women gave her a strange look, before she smirked again. Before the blonde could even blink, the women's nails had grown long and sharp. Startled, Elle fell down onto her rear and backed off from the women, holding an arm out defensively. The women then swiped her hand in her direction. Elle's eyes snapped shut and she braced herself to be chopped into pieces. However, no pain came at all and instead her ankle felt lighter than it had done for quite a while now. Opening her eyes again, she looked down and found the chain had been sliced up and left in scraps of metal around her. On top of that, there wasn't even the tiniest scratch where the woman had cut, the only mark that was there were the two bruises that circled around her ankle from where the chain had been.

Rubbing her ankle, Elle smiled and glanced up at the women. "Hey, thanks a lot!" She said giddily, grabbing hold of her bag and jumping onto her feet. She groaned a little as the bruises on her leg protested, but she managed to stay up and beam at the woman who released her. "Um... so, why are you here... miss" She asked, her voice going small again as her heart began to beat faster, noticing how she hadn't retracted her nails just yet. The woman didn't say anything and simply stepped aside, her nails going back to their normal size. Smirking, she held her hand out to the open door.

"You'll be able to get out easily, just follow those on the floor and you'll find your exit" She told the girl, her voice calm and smooth. Elle looked at her suspiciously for a moment, but began to walk towards the door anyway, holding her bag close to her chest, just in case she had to use it as a weapon of mass destruction. Her pace slowed down even more as she passed the women, frightened that she was going to impale her when she wasn't looking.

"I suggest you hurry up before Greed comes, you don't want to remain here, do you?"

"Yes, extendable nails women!" Elle blurted, bolting immediately from the room, leaving the women looking taken aback for a moment.

Sighing, she placed her hands on her hips as she watched the girl race down the corridor, glancing at the bodies and using them as arrows to find her way out. "All this to keep an eye on a little girl..." She breathed. A short, plump figure then appeared beside her, chewing something in his mouth as he looked up innocently at the women. "Gluttony, I told you not to eat anything..." She muttered, giving him a light slap on top of his head.

"I don't understand why she doesn't want us to kill her, after all she wasn't supposed to see me" Another voice purred from the shadows. The woman shook her head lightly.

"She just told us to let her out and make sure that she hadn't been hurt too badly, she says that there's something about her that she wants to monitor, but I don't know what that is exactly..."

---

"HOLY MOLEY A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE FRAKIN' TUNNEL!" Elle yelled at the top of her lungs after she rounded a corner, following the bodies like she had been instructed to. There it was, the exit. Although it looked like someone had chewed a hole in the wall for her, but she didn't care, it got her out and that's all that mattered at the moment. Rushing out of the building, she raced down the streets she found herself on, getting as far from the place as physically possible.

The streets weren't clean, to say the least. Litter was scattered on the cobbled roads and mud smeared into the surface like a second skin. Most of the buildings around the place had smashed windows and or wooden boards pinned up on them, sheltering out the cold and anything else that would come crawling in. There were several different alleys on the single street that Elle was running down, all of them smeared with crimson splashes and garbage. Clearly this place was the rougher part of town and not a place where Elle belonged at all. She had to find a way out and to the nicer parts of town, if there was any. She could ask someone, but then again, anyone down here could be a friend of Greed's and hand her over to him.

Turning around a street corner, Elle took her chances and dashed down another street and then another and then another, until she found herself weaving in and out of different places in the town. Eventually, the places began to become a lot cleaner and people were seen wondering around the streets, bringing a lot of relief to Elle. The blonde girl found herself passing a few shops by now, tired and hungry out of her mind. She wasn't exactly the fittest person around and she had only managed to run for about two or three streets, but at least she was definitely out of Greed's reach now – or, she hoped she was anyway.

"Must... get... my fast arse... back to... Central!" She held her finger up in the air after saying the last word and then collapsed on the ground, face down. She mumbled something into the road beneath her and knew that she was getting strange looks off the people who were walking around on the street. A couple of kids playing on the streets seemed to have taken a liking to her as they ran over and began to jab her in the ribs with some sticks.

"Is she dead?" A little boy asked, clinging to the shirt of his older brother. The older brother was frowning at the girl at his feet, rubbing his chin as he stared at her. His skin was dark along with his hair and her worse loose rags with a pair of sandals, he looked almost identical to his younger brother, minus the height and how his hair was much longer then the little boy's was.

"I don't know..." He whispered, jabbing her in the side again with the stick. "Are. You. Alive!?" He shouted at her, jabbing her yet again. Elle moaned and turned her head so her cheek was resting on the ground. The boys jumped away from her as her eyes became swirls.

She lifted her finger up in the air. "When I grow up, mummy, I wanna be a big jar of pickles, ha-ha!" She sang. Suddenly, her finger fell onto the ground and her eyes shut. The two boys glanced at each other and looked back at the girl again. Her mouth was hanging open and she snored loudly as she lay sprawled out on the road.

"What should we do with her, Michael?" The younger brother asked, glancing up at Michael. The older boy looked down at the body and then up at the nearby building.

"Well, teacher only lives there, let's go and see her, Dominik" Michael said, bending down to the girl and grabbing hold of her arms. He glanced at his younger brother and nodded his head at the girl's legs, motioning for him to get hold of them. Dominik nodded eagerly and rushed over to the girl's legs, holding onto her ankles. After a count to three, the boy's lifted her up, Michael lifted her a little higher than his brother, who was already struggling with her legs and they hadn't even began to walk to the meat shop that stood beside them.

Michael kicked the door open, taking note that the women who lurked inside wouldn't be too happy with him for that – at least they had a good excuse this time. Dragging the girl inside the shop, they laid her out on the floor and sighing loudly, glad to finally have the weight off them. They then looked up, finding a large man glaring down at them, holding a knife in hand. The oldest brother smiled and waved a hand at him. "Uhm, we've got something for teacher, could you get her for us, please?"

I'm proud of myself for finally updating, even if it is a short chapter and for some reason it took me a while to start writing this... I'm not too sure why, it just was... ah wel.

Beth'll be happy because her cat is coming along with Frances (who is based of de bestest of best frienddom Beth, of course) in da staryy!

Please review X.