A/N: Sorry it took me so long, I just haven't had to time to do anything lately. Oh yeah, for a little while (I'm not entirely sure how long.) in the story the chapters will be partly about what's going on with Scott and partly about Rai, because I'm bored and I felt like it I guess.
Thank you to stabbythings, and IceFire Dragon Alchemist73 for reviewing.
After what had to have been the most amusing train ride Scott had ever been on, they finally reached Central. On the train ride Scott had learned that Lin's servants' names were Ran Fan-the young woman, and Fu-the old man. She also learned that Lin was 15…and taller than Ed. Scott didn't really think there was a problem with it. Lin was taller than Scott, who was the oldest out of the group, being already 16. There was a huge commotion afterwards, when Ed insulted Lin out of jealously and Ran Fan attacked through the roof. Scott found the ride to be a lot of fun.
But right now, Lin was nowhere to be found. Ran Fan and Fu went off in search for their young master, while the rest discussed where they were going next. Ed was talking about how they should go to the headquarters to visit Hughes. Scott scowled, now that she figured out that they believed Hughes to be alive. Instead of telling them the truth, however, Scott kept her mouth shut.
It would be better if they found out from someone they were close to, not some who's practically a stranger to them. Scott reasoned.
"Hey, Scott, are you coming with us?" Ed asked. Scott thought for a moment, and then shook her head.
"Nah, I don't want to run into my dead-beat father just yet. I'm going to wander around town for a while, if that's okay with you guys." Scott told them. Ed nodded, not really blaming her for wanting to take her time before meeting Mustang again.
"We'll see you later then." Winry said. They exchanged goodbyes and then went their separate ways.
Scott wandered around Central, marveling at all of the colors and different shops she passed. At one point she could've sworn she saw Lin being dragged off by some soldiers. Scott simply shook her head. If it was Lin, he'd probably be able to break out of a cell with the help of his ninja-like minions…then again…they didn't know where Lin was…
Scott shrugged it off. As she walked, Scott listened to the people around her gossiping.
"Did you hear?"
"They caught that Hughes guy's murderer-"
"She says she didn't do it."
"Shot him in a phone booth-"
"Poor guy-"
"What was the woman's name, the one that killed him?"
"2nd Lieutenant Ross."
Scott walked out of the throng of people. She had heard all of that, but what she hadn't heard about was a motive. Why would this, 2nd Lieutenant Ross person, kill Hughes? From everything she knew about the case-which was, granted, very little-Hughes was a wonderful man who was always helping other people. Why would anyone want to kill a man like that? Some things just didn't add up, the whole situation reeked of a set up.
But…why would they want to set Ross up as a murder suspect? Why was Hughes murdered in the first place? Scott had a feeling that there was something shady going on in the inner workings of the military. I wonder if it has anything to do with that homunculus guy, Greed. Maybe there are more homunculi? If the military is making them… Scott almost laughed at the idea. She was getting way too paranoid for her own good. Government conspiracies, Scott couldn't actually believe that something so ridiculous could be real. I think I should just relax for the rest of the day, and keep my nose out of other people's business. Ah, I'll do a little shopping; maybe buy some souvenirs for everyone back in Dublith. Better either buy Rai some food…or a few books. Scott wandered into a shopping area, accidently brushing shoulders with some guy who had long, green, palm tree-like hair. Although Scott didn't see or hear anything he said, the man did a double-take and gawked at her as Scott walked by. The man then shook his head and walked away, muttering about being told about Mustang having a kid, but never thinking that she'd look so much like him.
Envy didn't like this. What was Mustang's brat doing here in Central?
Crap, if she's helping Mustang then that's one more problem that I don't want to deal with. I should follow her around for a bit before checking in with Father. For all I know, she could hate Mustang so much that she'd do the exact opposite of whatever he told her to just to spite him. Then again, they could have some kind of father-daughter bond and both of them could get in our way…Yeah; it'd be a good idea just to see what she's doing here. With that, Envy quickly changed his appearance into a teenage boy with curly red hair, brown eyes, and freckles all across the bridge of his nose and across his cheeks. He was wearing a white tee-shirt and blue overalls, one of the straps properly over his shoulder while the other one was just hanging off his pants.
Scott however was still thinking about what to get her friends. She had no clue that she was being stalked by an androgynous palm tree in disguise.
A stuff animal of some sort for Emily; that would be what she'd want, I think. Erin would what any kind of toy, maybe I could find a toy train or something. Samuel…I don't know what he'd want so I'll just pick whatever, perhaps something old and dusty…he tends to like that stuff. Now, as for Gran, I'll get her a figurine, she loves those. Gramps…I'll get him a cheesy tourist sweat-shirt…It's not like he'll actually see it. Scott grinned evilly at the thought. Scott went into a toy store first.
It was small, but filled with just about every kind of toy imaginable. There were dolls and building kits and coloring books and about a thousand other kinds of toys. At the moment there were only two or three sets of customers in the store. Scott went over to a display that had teddy bears and stuffed toy lions. The stuffed lions were yellow, with a brown mane, and a white button for a belly button. The teddy bears were white and fluffy, with black eyes and a black and white striped bow. Both were really cute, but in the end Scott choose the white teddy bear.
Next, Scott walked over to where there was a display of toy cars and trucks and, thankfully, trains. She found a toy train that was dark green with the front and the wheels being black. Scott went to the cashier and bought the toys. She thanked the cashier and left with her bag.
Envy scowled, standing on the corner of the street, right next to the store.
Toys? What, does she have an illegitimate child as well? Envy asked himself. A little girl stood right next to him, holding a giant lollipop and staring at Envy with big, unblinking eyes. He glared at the little girl, but she didn't leave. Noticing that Scott was walking into an antiques store, Envy followed, but not before snatching the lollipop from the little girl and dumping it in the trash. Envy smirked when he heard the little girl cry, only to be hushed by her mother, who hadn't even seen what had happened.
Scott entered the antiques store and scrunched up her nose at the smell. It smelled like old people and mold. She found a cute little figurine of a gray glass dolphin jumping out of the ocean (Which was the base painted blue). Scott also found an old silver necklace with emerald jewel. It looked like some kind of cursed object, so Scott thought it would be perfect for Samuel. Before going to buy the items, Scott checked out an old mirror that caught her attention. She was interested by the intricate gold design that rimmed the mirror. When Scott actually looked in the mirror, she froze for a second.
There was a boy about her age watching her from outside the shop. He had short, curly red hair and light brown eyes. There were freckles all across his face, like a line going over his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. He was wearing a white tee-shirt and overalls. One of the straps of the overalls was hanging off the pants, instead of over his shoulder.
The teenage boy was standing outside the shop, looking in through the window. To anyone else, he'd look like someone just window shopping. But Scott could see that he was looking directly at her. Scott wasn't looking directly at his reflection in the mirror, so he probably didn't think she knew he was spying on her. Scott got a bad feeling about the guy. She quickly bought the figurine and the necklace and then rushed out of the store. She walked quickly down the street, glancing into windows as she passed them. Scott was checking to see if the boy was still following her. He was. Scott darted into a bookstore and weaved in and out of the shelves. The young man was having trouble keeping up with her. Scott paused for a moment and grabbed a book on military tactics. She read the back of the book and watched the boy out of the corner of her eye. He was standing at the other end of the store, pretending to look at a book about child care. Scott went to the counter, grabbing a tourist tee-shirt with the military's symbol on the front as she passed a rack selling them. After paying for the book and the shirt, Scott rushed out the door.
When the boy followed her out, Scott suddenly stepped back and slammed her elbow in his face. The boy fell to the ground, swearing like a sailor. Scott looked around and saw that a crowd was forming, and she got an idea.
"You son-of-a-bitch!!" Scott roared. "How dare you get my sister pregnant!" she screamed. The boy gave her a baffled look, having no clue of what she was talking about. "And right after you started dating our cousin, David!" Scott shouted, and then kicked the boy in the ribs. The boy scrambled to get up and run away, but Scott grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and threw him into a cart selling cabbages. "And what happened to getting married to my aunt, huh?!" Scott yelled. It was obvious that she was making up the story as she was going along. That wasn't the issue, though. The real problem was that, for some odd reason, the townsfolk believed her.
"What a cretin!" Someone shouted.
"Get out of here you low-down, good-for-nothing!" Someone else hollered. The boy got to his feet, and ran as he was pelted with whatever anyone could get their hands on.
"And don't come back!" Scott yelled over all the commotion. She was having a lot of fun stirring up trouble. Although, she thought it was somewhat strange that the townsfolk actually help drive the boy away. Scott believed that they would simply continue to watch stupidly-like most people. It was the guy's fault; he shouldn't have been following Scott around like a freak. The only reason she didn't actually confront him about it was that this way was much more fun.
Scott cackled in evil glee as she walked to the military hotel that she was staying at with Ed and the others. It was getting dark now; the sun was gone over the horizon. She said good night to Al and Ed as they ran past her. Winry was standing in the hallway, she seemed frustrated.
"Those boys never tell me anything!" Winry said, flustered. Scott simply shrugged, and then entered her room. She placed all of her bags on the table, walked over to the bed. Scott fell asleep the moment her face hit the pillow, not even bothering to take her shoes off.
Rai sat in her cell, bored out of her mind. How was she to know that her new coworkers couldn't take a harmless joke? Granted, planting fake bombs all over the headquarters and then sending her superiors a letter saying that someone was going to set off a bunch of bombs all at once if the military couldn't find them all in time…wasn't a normal prank. But she had gotten permission from King Bradley himself, under the excuse that it was all just an exercise to see how well everyone would work together to solve the problem. So it wasn't like she wasn't supposed to do it. When it was all done, everyone found the four cardboard boxes that had 'bomb' written on the front of them (the boxes were filled with candy). Then of course, King Bradley had to spoil all of Rai's fun by telling everyone that it was her idea. Her coworkers then locked her in here as revenge. Rai personally thought that locking her up was a little overkill. Heck, even Colonel Mustang had thought her joke was kind of funny…Well, that's what he had told her earlier that day as he stood outside her cell and laughed at her.
Rai scowled at the memory. In the cell next to hers Rai could hear someone being questioned. From what she heard, the guy in the next cell was a 15 year old boy from Xing and his name was Lin.
Suddenly, Rai could hear gunfire and loud voices. She stood up and looked through the bars.
"What's going on?!" someone demanded to know.
"Weird…armored intruder! Please help!" One of the soldiers outside Rai's cell yelled. Rai decided that now, while there was a diversion, she could make her escape. Rai took out the key that she had pick pocketed from one of her coworkers who threw her in here, and set to work trying to unlock her cell. The intruder was screaming something as he ran closer to where Rai's cell was located.
"Too weak, too weak, too weak!" is what Rai heard. She could also hear bullets ricochet off of the intruder. "Is that the best you've got?! Huh?!" Rai looked up and gapped at the intruder once she saw him.
"What the hell is that?!" Both one of the soldiers and Rai yelled at the same time.
"Guns don't work!" the soldier shouted, stating the obvious. Rai went back to trying to unlock the cell, but the key didn't seem to want to go in the hole properly. Rai hoped she hadn't snatched the wrong key.
"Move, I'll blow his head off!" another soldier shouted. Rai only paused for a moment.
If guns don't work, then how would blowing off his head work? Rai asked silently. Then she tilted her head to the head. It could work if he's a zombie...but I didn't know zombies could talk… Rai shrugged, and then went back to what she was doing. The sound of the gunshot hitting the intruder's helmet caused Rai to jump a bit…and cause her to drop the key.
"Oops." The intruder said, his helmet flying off to reveal nothing inside the armor. The empty armor then caught its head and placed it back on its body. "Try again!" It bellowed. All of the soldiers screamed, sounding like little girls. Rai was too busy crouching down and trying to reach for the key, so she didn't see what was happening and wasn't paying attention to what she heard. When she did look up she saw that the intruder was about to walk away.
"Hey!" Rai yelled. The intruder looked over at her. "Would you be a pal and give me that key, I sorta dropped it." The intruder nodded and gave her the key.
"Hello~" Said the guy in the cell next to Rai's "Lemme out!" he said. Rai finally unlocked her cell and jumped out.
"Huh? Who the hell are you?" the intruder asked.
"An illegal immigrant from Xing." He explained. Rai looked at him. He had long black hair pulled back in a ponytail with some of his hair out as kind of spiky bangs. His eyes were squinted into mere lines. He was wearing oriental style clothing colored yellow and white. So this was Lin, at least now Rai had a face to go with the name.
"No time to waste on you!" the intruder had said, cutting Rai out of her spacing out.
"Oh please! I'll be forcefully transported back at this rate!" Lin begged.
"So? Not my problem." The intruder told him while starting to walk away.
"I'll help you if you let me out." Lin told the intruder. Rai watched at the intruder paused.
"…Where are you from again?" the intruder asked.
"From Xing of the East." Lin said. The intruder chopped off the lock to Lin's cell.
"Come! Hurry!" The intruder ordered.
"Oh, do you guys mind if I tag along?" Rai asked. They both looked at her and blinked. They frowned-well Lin frowned-at Rai's military uniform. "Don't' worry about that! I'm not planning on reporting you two. I just want to have some fun! Especially since my stupid coworkers locked me in here just because of a practical joke." Rai explained. Both of them looked at each other, and then shrugged.
"Fine, as long as you don't slow us down!" the intruder told her. Rai smiled and followed them as they ran down the hall. Rai almost giggled when she saw the gaping hole in the side of the intruder's helmet/head. The three stopped at the confiscation room. The intruder grabbed a sword he liked (which was Lin's) and then they continued on their way. When they met some more soldiers, Rai ran passed Lin and the intruder, and gave one of the soldiers a flying kick to the gut.
"Weeee!" Rai shouted as she then leapfrogged over a different soldier and pushed off. This caused the soldier to collide with another soldier.
The intruder stopped at a cell. There was a woman inside the cell. She had short, black hair and grey eyes. There was a mole under her left eye.
"HELLO HONEY! FINALLY FOUND YOU…" The intruder said in what Rai thought was the creepiest voice possible.
"Is that his girlfriend or something?" Rai asked Lin. Lin shrugged, not having a clue. The intruder broke the lock on her cell.
"You're from the 5th research institute…" the woman in the cell gasped.
"What an honor to be remembered~~" The intruder said, walking into the cell.
"Hum…A stalker maybe?" Rai asked Lin. Lin shrugged again, still not having a clue.
"I think of you every time I see the bullet hole on my hand shot by you." The intruder told the woman. "Ain't that right, murderer of Brigadier General Hughes?" Rai remembered hearing something about that. This woman was 2nd Lieutenant Ross.
"That's a misunderstanding!" Ross shouted. The intruder leaned in close as he spoke again.
"I guess so. 'Came to confirm that. You don't have the eyes of a murderer." He told her. Rai stopped paying attention to what was being said. Instead she began talking to Lin.
"So, what brings you to this country?" Rai asked him.
"Ah, I'm looking for immortality." Lin told her.
"Cool…hey how'd you sneak into the country?" Rai wanted to know.
"I crossed the desert. In fact, I was actually in a town called Rush Valley before I came here." He told her.
"Hey did you meet a friend of mine named Scott?" Rai asked.
"Oh yeah, she was traveling with two boys named Ed and Al Elric." Lin said. Rai grinned mischievously.
"I know; I was the one who told her to go." Rai explained.
"So you're the Rai that Scott was talking about. She said something about worrying that you were planning something…" Lin frowned in thought.
"Oh, I was just screwing with her. It's fun to make people think you're up to something when you're not. That way they get all sorts of jumpy and paranoid and you don't have to do a thing. And once they get over it and don't believe you're going to do anything…That's when you strike." Rai gave him an evil looking grin. Then they heard soldiers coming.
"Give me time to think…" Ross told the intruder.
"No time for that." Lin told her, pointing at the direction the sound was coming from. "Reinforcements are here." Rai thought for a moment. Now was the time that she had to choose, if she continued to follow these guys, she might get in trouble…but if she didn't, she'd be bored again. Rai choose to go with what was amusing her at the moment. After all, it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission, as Rai discovered recently, because you'd get in trouble either way.
The woman had obviously decided to also join their little group, for she followed the intruder out of her cell, and the four of them walked down the hall and made their escape.
"Hey…Where are we running to…?!" Ross asked once they were outside.
"Just run! Hurry!" the intruder, whose name was Barry the Chopper, told her. As they turned the corner, they ran into Ed and Al.
"Ah…2nd Lieutenant Ross!" both brothers shouted.
"Huh?" Barry asked stupidly.
"Edward and Aphonse!" Ross gasped.
"Ah! You are from that time!" both Al and Barry shouted at each other.
"Rai and Lin too?!" Al and Ed asked pointing at the two. Both Rai and Lin smiled and said hi. Rai knew it'd be fun to follow these people.
"Eck! Don't stand in the way!" Barry shouted, slicing at Al. Al blocked it.
"2nd Lieutenant Ross?! What's going on?! Lieutenant Colonel Hughes…Did you really…?!" Ed tried to ask, but he had trouble.
"Don't bother Missy! Run straight to the warehouse cluster down that alley! You can get away in the darkness there!" Barry told her, standing ready to fight if Ed and Al attacked. "Hurry! You'll be killed if the soldiers come!" he told her, glancing back at her momentarily. Ross hesitated for a moment, and then ran for the alley.
"I'm sorry Edward! I'll explain later!" she shouted over her shoulder.
"Wait a sec-whoa!" Ed tried to go after her, but had to dodge out of the way of Barry's blade.
"Don't come! No time to play with you guys!" Barry told them, swing both blades he held wildly. Ed and Al called out for the 2nd Lieutenant, but she ignored their cries.
Then they heard and saw a huge explosion coming from the direction Maria Ross had run off in. "Huh?" Barry wondered.
"Shit!" swore Ed, running past Barry.
"I told you I have no time to play with you guys!" Barry told them, sounding very annoyed. "Let's go, Beady Eyes and Short Girl." Barry ordered Lin and Rai.
"Aye, Aye." Lin and Rai both said.
"Lin! Rai! Why are you with that guy?!" Al asked. Lin gave in a sympathetic look and waved, while Rai just gave him a mysterious grin. They ran off.
The three of them got on the roof top and observed as Ed freaked out on Mustang about what he had done to Ross. Rai could see a smoldering body near them.
"Shit! That was unexpected." Barry muttered.
"What now?" Lin asked.
"People are gathering…We have no choice but to scram. Let's go." Barry said. He turned to leave, and Lin followed him. Rai hesitated for a moment, and then hurried after them. For some odd reason, when Rai smelled the burning body, she felt like really hungry…