After wandering into the alley in her attempt to find the others, Jian most of all, someone had run into and knocked Cai down; and now she was scared. She realized her hands stung and she looked to find that they were all scraped up and bleeding. But before she had any time to process what had happened that resulted in her meeting with the hard ground, the person shoved her in front of him like she was a shield. She yelped when she found a black clawed hand inches away from her face.
"You don't fight women, remember, Greed?" the person shouted at the owner of the clawed hand, almost desperately.
After seeming to think about it for a minute, looking at both Cai and the person who was using her as a shield, he said, "That's true, but nothing's stopping me from just taking you both. My father may have use for both of you," the other man, Greed, replied.
Before the other person could reply or stop it, Greed picked them both. Cai wasn't entirely sure how they ended up of the roofs, Greed must've climbed up there when she had been too busy panicking.
"Let me go!" she screamed. "Let me go or my Prince Jian will make you pay!"
Greed laughed. "Look, girl, I haven't met anyone I couldn't handle."
...
Jian didn't like this situation at all. If only Cai had gone running off during that hour with someone so she didn't get lost, or stayed at the palace in Xing so nobody had to worry about her in the first place. But now wasn't the time to think about that. Cai may be annoying but he didn't want any of his clan to be hurt if he could help it.
Shay glanced over at Jian worriedly, who was the farthest ahead and hoping his ribs didn't begin to ache again. Just by reading the chi of Cai and the others with her, she could tell the situation had gone from bad to worse. It seemed that Cai was moving with the homunculus.
Keeping close to the Prince, Shay understood that he was pushing himself for Cai, but was still surprised at how well he was doing. Knowing the Prince, his ribs were probably starting to bother him again, but he wouldn't care until after Cai was safe.
Jian's ribs were indeed beginning to ache, but he just ignored it. If they didn't hurry, Cai could end up in worse shape than him. The thought scared him a little, considering the circumstances. Meili followed silently. If the ex-assassin was worried at all, she didn't show it.
Though she hurried as quickly as she could, Joan just couldn't keep up well. She wasn't as fast as she used to be because the weight of her automail slowed her down and caused her to tire quickly.
Clarissa slowed down and matched Joan's pace, when she noticed the State Alchemist struggling. "You ok?" She managed to say.
"I'm fine," Joan panted. "Just getting a little tired because of my automail. I'll manage."
Clarissa nodded, but she stayed with Joan, even though the others were farther ahead and they were falling behind.
"You don't have to stay behind with me. It's alright if you go ahead. I'm just slow," Joan said apologetically. "I used to be faster, but three automail limbs get tiring after a while."
Clarissa shook her head. "It's ok, I can stay with you, sometimes keeping up with them is hard," she said, even though she could easily keep up with them, she was just coming up with excuses so she could stay with Joan.
Joan wasn't sure if Clarissa was lying or telling the truth, but dropped the subject anyway. It didn't matter either way because it didn't seem like Clarissa was going to leave.
...
Cai had soon gotten tired of kicking and screaming and eventually struck a conversation with the other person Greed had picked up. She learned that his name was Neil Wardwell, he was 14 years old, and had stolen a valuable golden watch from Greed. Neil didn't have much money and figured that, since Greed didn't seem to wear it at all, that the homunculus wouldn't miss the golden watch. But Neil had sadly been mistaken and now he was in this mess with Cai.
After walking on the rooftops for a while, Greed finally jumped down from the buildings and into an underground tunnel. They began wandering those for a while. The two captives got lost amidst the twists and turns, but Greed maneuvered through them like he knew the path well. Soon enough, they arrived in a large chamber and a man could be seen sitting in a chair in the center of the room, looking at some documents.
"Hey, Pops!" Greed shouted at the man, "I have a couple of gifts for ya!" Greed dropped the two of them in front of the man who must be his father.
"And who would these two be?" Father asked, unimpressed.
Before answering, Greed picked a golden watch from Neil's pocket and fastened it on his wrist. "I thought you could use them for some new homunculi. If I'm counting right, you still need Lust and a flask for Pride," he explained.
Father nodded. "I guess so."
Neither Cai nor Neil knew what they were talking about, but it didn't sound good. Though she was scared and confused, she had no doubt her Prince would come to rescue her.
"Greed," Father said. "Kill the boy."
Neil and Cai gasped in fright. Nobody could blame Neil for attempting to get away.
"Will do," Greed said with a grin, his hands turning black as his ultimate shield covered them.
...
Tess followed as quickly as she could without losing Takara. Chun would have an easy enough time keeping up, but Takara wasn't as fast as them and started getting tired after a while. Soon enough, everyone had met up once again at the entrance to the tunnels.
"How are we going to find Cai in this maze?" Takara asked, looking into the tunnels.
"I can still sense them, but I'm not sure which tunnels to take," Tess replied.
"Go a random direction and hope we don't get lost?" Joan shrugged uncertainly as she suggested it. She was still a little tired and out of breath from running.
Jian suggested impatiently, hoping they wouldn't arrive too late, "Just make a tunnel straight there using alchemy!"
"And why didn't we think of that?" Joan face palmed.
Tess grabbed her necklace and placed her hands on the ground. With a bright flash of light she made a tunnel. "There. Let's go." She started running through the tunnel she had just made, with the others close behind.
Jian was the first out of the tunnel an in the large chamber. What they found was a man in the center of the room, another man standing over the dead body of a young teenage boy, and Cai, who looked mortified. It was immediately obvious that the man standing over the teen was the homunculus they had sensed, the one that had taken Cai.
Jian's primary concern was Cai. He ran forward but was stopped by Greed. Not wanting to deal with this, Jian tried to chi-block him, but Greed's skin was unusually hard. Shaking his hands from the pain, Jian dodged a punch from Greed.
"It didn't work?" Jian exclaimed, confused when Greed was still moving fine.
"What? That little punch you threw at me?" Greed asked. "It's a little hard to hurt me through my ultimate shield, especially with that wimpy attack."
Seeing that Jian's chi-blocking wasn't working, Tess tried to run past Greed, but he blocked the way. She tried jumping over him, but he caught her and shoved her back.
"Sorry, Toots, I may not fight women, but I can't let you interrupt," Greed informed.
Takara wanted to run past and try to get to Cai, but Tess noticed her getting ready to run and stopped her. "Stay back, it's too dangerous," Tess warned.
Takara sighed, unable to keep from feeling useless. "Fine."
Joan clapped her hands and ran forward. Maybe some alchemy would help them. She destroyed the ground underneath Greed's feet and attempted to run past, but Greed jumped back onto solid ground and pushed her back as well.
"Why are so many of you girls?" he complained. "You're making this difficult."
Father pulled out a red stone and Joan couldn't hold back a gasp. She exclaimed, "That's a philosopher's stone! Stop him!"
Grapping Cai's wrist and looking at her scraped up hands, he said approvingly, "That makes it easier."
Jian tried to rush past again, only to have to dodge another attack from Greed and being halted. "Cai!" he called.
"Jian!" she shouted back, trying to pull away from Father's grasp, with no success.
Laura gasped loudly when she saw the philosopher's stone, the clapped her hands together, and then slapped them on the floor to send a bunch of spikes at Greed.
Tess tried throwing her kunai by Cai to do alkahestry, but Greed swatted them out of the air before they could get past him.
"Nice try, but I still can't let you interrupt," he persisted smugly.
Chun charged their homunculus opponent directly and landed a direct kick to the side of his head, her automail making it lethal under most circumstances, but Greed remained standing and uninjured. She leaped back and watched the ultimate shield crawl away from the place she just kicked. Silently, she wondered, "Why doesn't he just cover his head too?"
"Why do you keep trying?" Greed questioned and he turned to face her. "Obviously nothing is working. Just give it up already."
Clarissa watched for a minute, wanting to learn about Greed before she started fighting him. She noticed most, if not all of their attacks did nothing to deter him. "Should I... No, that didn't work out very well. I'll just stick to normal Alchemy. All we need to do is distract him long enough that somebody could slip past and grab Cai." Even with Clarissa helping, the attacks they dished out were still useless.
Noticing that Greed wouldn't fight girls, Shay had hidden her face with her mask before joining the fight. Since he couldn't tell that Shay was a girl while her armor and mask were on, he fought her like he did Jian. Even though Jian couldn't chi-block Greed with the homunculus's ultimate shield, if the Prince could catch him off guard it might work. But there wasn't enough time.
"Hey, Father!" Greed shouted. "Do you think you get Pride to come and help me? There are too many girls and it's getting really annoying!"
Father paused and didn't drop the philosopher's stone onto Cai's scratched-up hands yet. "Pride, you can come get your flask now," he said to the air.
As he said it, shadows seemed to move along the ground toward Neil's body, and engulfing it, taking control of it. Neil stood up and opened his once blue eyes, that were now purple, yet it still looked like Neil.
Anzhela gasped. "Oh gosh, what the...?" she mumbled quietly.
"Two now?" Shaneka thought anxiously. "This isn't good."
Pride turned towards the fight. With a small smile he joined in, aiming a flesh-slicing shadow at Jian.
"What is up with those shadows?" Clarissa thought. Clarissa stared at the shadows at the shot towards Jian. "What in the...?" she murmured aloud, too stunned to do anything.
Jian jumped out of the way to dodge, but was surprised when it didn't reach him. He saw Greed standing between Jian and Pride, having deflected the shadow. Greed's sleeve was a torn, but he didn't seem to care. The Prince paused for a moment to wonder why Greed was defending him.
"Pride, I'm fighting these two. You take care of the girls!" Greed stated, answering Jian's unasked question.
"Do these homunculi have something against me?" Jian asked Shay. "They seem to like attacking me. Why does everyone want to kill me?
"Maybe it's because the rest of us are girls," Chun offered teasingly.
"It's not just Greed," Jian objected. "Envy, Greed, and now Pride," he counted, and then added, "and not to mention all the assassins."
Laura glared at Pride and Greed. Pride sighed, then turned his shadows towards the nearest girl.
Joan didn't like the look of Pride's shadows turning towards her. She clapped her hands together to get ready for an attack. Pride's shadows shot straight towards her, going for a direct attack. She put her hands on the ground and a wall of rock shot up from the ground to block the deadly shadows. Just to be safe, she jumped to the side so she wouldn't get skewered. Pride broke through Joan's wall easily and headed straight for her like she had done nothing to stop him, and she found herself thankful she had jumped to the side.
"How do we fight shadows?" Tess wondered, getting ready to dodge if need be. If she needed to she could protect Takara as well.
Takara had retreated to the tunnel they had come through and watched nervously. Laura clapped her hands together and then slapped them on the two closest walls, creating fists that slammed into Pride. The homunculus flew through the air, hit the ground painfully, but proceeded to get back up just fine. Even though it didn't work the first time, Laura tried again.
This time, however, another shadow shot out from around Pride to cut the fist in half, sending the two chunks flying past him, and narrowly missing Chun. The rest of the shadows continued to target Joan. Pride had noticed she and Laura seemed slower than the rest, so he aimed most of his efforts on them.
Laura gasped. "Crap!" She hurried and made a double edged spear from alchemy, blocking Pride's next attack with a glancing blow using the spear, which deflected the shadow, but broke the newly made spear. She hurriedly fixed it with her alchemy.
Deciding to help, Clarissa clapped her hands together and transmuted a sword and began to attack the shadows relentlessly. She found it strange to be fighting shadows, and would have laughed in they weren't trying to cut her in half.
Clarissa noticed that Pride could fight all three of them at once and acted as if it didn't matter. "It probably doesn't matter. For all we know, he's probably holding back," she thought as she avoided one attack and jumped out of the way of the other. "How are Joan and Laura managing to avoid these attacks?!" She was barely dodging them, and she was faster than both of them.
Tess joined the fight, coming to Joan's aid and using a couple kunai to parry the shadows. Pride started fighting all four of them at once, focusing on the weakest, which in his mind was the slowest. He just blocked everyone else and attacked Joan repeatedly, trying to tire her. Immediately after Tess joined in, Chun followed to make sure her friend made it out all right.
Joan desperately tried to dodge the attacks, barely managing not to get skewered each time. But she was starting to slow down more, and the shadowy attacks were getting closer and closer to hitting her each time. At this point, they were each only a hair away and some grazed her skin.
Clarissa was starting to get tired, and when she glanced over at Joan and Laura, it was clear that they were tiring too. Joan was getting too close to getting hit for comfort. "This isn't going well, what do we do?" she thought desperately.
Pride could tell the slower girl was tiring quickly now. Knowing this was his chance, he attacked her with three shadows, positioning them so that at her current speed she would probably avoid the first one, maybe the second one if she was lucky, but he would at skewer her with the third one. He He smirked nefariously, knowing Joan was done forr.
Joan saw the shadows coming and realized that she wouldn't be able to dodge them all. If she dodged one, she's jump right into another and be hit either way. She was too slow to be able to avoid being brutally murdered. She got ready to try and dodge anyway, deciding it was better to try than to just give in to her fate, and hoped to get lucky.
Clarissa cringed and glanced away, hoping Joan would be okay. She wished there was something she could do, but she didn't notice the attack until it was too late. Even using alchemy, by the time she finished transmuting Joan would either be dead, hurt or, very, very lucky. Tess saw the shadows going for Joan and realized that the State Alchemist wouldn't be able to dodge in time. Despite Chun's shouted warning not to, Tess ran forward and shoved Joan out of harm's way then nimbly dodged the shadows herself. Seeing they were both alright, Chun breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
Believing the shadows hit her, Pride smiled again. For his first day with a body for a flask, everything was going well. Pride's smile disappeared when the dust he threw up settled and he realized that Joan escaped alive. His morale remained unaltered, however, and he persisted his tireless onslaught of shadows.
Surprised, Joan turned to see if Tess was alright and was relieved to find that she was. Tess definitely wasn't as slow as Joan. It bothered the alchemist to know that she might have been able to do that if her automail didn't slow her down and degrade her nimbleness.
"Thanks for the help!" Joan called to Tess. "I really needed it."
"Isn't that what friends are for?" Tess replied, smiling.
"I would hope so," Joan replied. "But now, we need to fight so we don't die."
Tess stayed near Joan so she could help keep her from getting skewered, keeping a close eye on the shadows.
"I would say that this isn't necessary," Joan said to Tess, "But unfortunately, I think it is." She chuckled nervously.
Clarissa sighed with relief, then continued to fight Pride. "We need to get out of here," she thought.
Jian was fighting Greed with Shay, trying to find an opening where he could get past the homunculus, but with no success. Greed seemed content to hold them back, with less effort wasted on trying to kill them. Jian glanced nervously in Cai's direction as she was trying to pull her hands away in vain. Father dropped the philosopher's stone onto her scratched hands and watched it vanish before releasing his hold on her.
The Prince wasn't sure what would happen, but he knew it would be bad. He suddenly darted in Cai's direction, somehow managing to escape Greed. Either that, or Greed hadn't tried to stop him. He thought he could hear Greed laughing behind him, but he ignored it. Coming to a stop next to Cai, he knew there was nothing he could do.
"Jian..." Cai said, her eyes wide in fear. "What's going to happen to me?"
"I don't..." he stammered, but was interrupted by Cai screaming in pain with such agony that it begged to rip Jian's heart from his chest. Urgently, he shouted, "Cai!"
Hearing Cai's scream, Takara cringed, wishing she could help somehow and Shay stopped fighting Greed for a split second to stare at Cai. The Xingese girl began to jerk around spasmodically, as if she had no control of her body's writhing movement. Jian watched helplessly next to her, his face contorted in disappointment in himself and fear for Cai's well-being.
...
This was a new experience for Cai. All she felt was pain, and now she had forgotten to feel scared. It gave a new meaning to agony. She found herself in what looked like a void of screaming red souls, calling out in sorrow with the same agony she felt. One stood out from the rest, larger and more powerful, and it seemed to address her.
"Finally, Father decides to get me a body," it said, "Took him long enough."
"Who are you?" Cai asked.
"I'm Lust, a homunculus, and I'll be taking control of your body now."
"What if I tell you I won't let you?" She inquired.
"It doesn't matter. You'll die anyway." Lust scoffed.
She confidently announced, "I doubt it. My Prince Jian will save me."
"And who is that?"
"My future husband and Emperor of Xing." Cai bragged.
"We'll see about that." It was difficult to tell, but Lust seemed to smirk.
The entity engulfed what was left of Cai, leaving her no will to fight back with and no choice but to surrender. Rather than resist and tire her soul out until it was extiguished and she ceased to exist, Cai allowed it to engulf her. Her agony and renewed fear left her, replaced with the calm surety that Jian would figure out how to save her.
...
Cai finally stopped writhing, but the tension in the air remained. Father, Greed, and Pride watched expectantly, while the others weren't sure what to expect and were tense. The philosopher's stone didn't kill Cai, but they didn't know happened yet.
"Cai?" Jian asked uncertainly.
"Is that her name?" Lust asked. "Sorry, she's gone."
"Hey, sis! Good to see you!" Greed greeted. "You're homunculus number seven!"
Lust glanced at Father, "You waited to give me a body until I was last?"
"None of the other six I've met seemed appropriate for you." Father responded calmly and Lust nodded in understanding.
"There's seven of them?" Takara squeaked.
"Seems like it," Tess said, dodging another shadow.
Jian stepped back from the homunculus who now occupied Cai's body. He face screamed of disbelief, refusing to accept that Cai was gone. She was too annoying to be gone. After all that they had gone through, they were still too late. Jian fell to his knees and put his head in his hands. He couldn't even save the girl who believed he could do anything.
Shay knelt down next to Jian. "Prince, I know what happened is bad, but we can't stop now, we need to get you out of here!" Her voice was calm, but she was almost as sad about what happened to Cai as Jian was, she was just holding it in for his sake. She glanced back at Greed, who didn't seem like he wanted to fight them anymore. Shay disregarded the somewhat chivalrous homunculus, concerned for the Prince who she had never seen act this way before. She cried desperately to snap him out of it," Prince, please! We need you!"
Jian didn't seem to hear Shaneka's pleas and Lust laughed mockingly at him. "You humans are so pathetic. One human dies and you collapse as if the world has ended, though in reality, you're all just pathetic insignificant creatures below the insects that swarm the ground."
Unable to speak through the pain and fury he now felt, Jian rose to his feet, face shaded as he moved forward to attack. However, he could bring himself to hurt Cai and froze, body shaking as he tried to convince himself to kill the monster who took Cai away. He dropped back to his knees at Lust's feet when his body refused to believe the reality that it was Cai he was trying to attack.
"My point proven," Lust smirked. "Normally, I would kill you, but you're kind of cute, so I'll let you off easy this once." She grabbed his hair and thrust her knee into his chest with surprising force, knocking the breath out of him.
Shay was less reluctant to attack, but she was more concerned for Jian's safety. Gasping and catching Jian as he slumped she glared up at Lust and growled, "Touch him again and I'll slice you to pieces. I don't care who's body you have."
"Just try it," Lust smirked. "Once you're done with that, I'll return the favor. And I doubt you'll recover as quickly as I will."
Turning back to Jian after shooting one more death glare at the homunculus who looked like Cai, she waited for him to recover from the kneeing, then started dragging him towards the exit with one arm looped under his right arm. Jian wasn't unconscious but didn't try to walk, but that didn't stop Shay from dragging him away. The bodyguard noted how his left hand hovered to his ribs, realizing the possibility that Lust had injured him again.
Meili appeared behind Pride and stabbed the back of his head with her hidden blade and a katana found its way through his back and out his chest. She knew full well that it wouldn't kill him, but it would give them enough time to run to the exit and allow for a better chance of escape.
"Let's go!" she yelled, as if issuing an order. She hurried over to where Jian and Shay were to stay close to the Prince. Chun helped get Jian out by looping her arm underneath his left one. He seemed to have lost his grip on reality at the moment and had simply given up. Meili could relate to his feelings of loss and devastation, as well as disappointment in oneself's performance.
Joan thought she was extremely lucky at this point to be more or less uninjured. She had a few scrapes and bruises, but she'd be fine. Better than Cai or that boy who's body was now Pride's.
"Let's get out of here!" Tess yelled to the others as she grabbed Joan and started pushing her and Takara up the tunnel. Joan ran as quickly as she could, which was still pretty slow compared to the others because of her automail and the fact that they were just fighting desperately for their lives. Anzhela ran with them, following right behind Laura and Chun ran just behind Tess. Clarissa ran near the end of the group.
Eventually, Jian started running on his own, though halfheartedly, telling himself they would figure everything out later. Meili let him go and slowed to run behind him, but Shay stuck close after trusting him to move forward.
...
Pride healed quickly, then looked over to Father. "Should I follow them?" he asked.
"If you want to," Father told Pride.
"Why not?" Pride shrugged, then walked closer to the tunnel. The shadows returned, shooting towards the tunnel.
Joan glanced back, and immediately regretted it when she saw Pride's shadows coming and knew that she'd be the first attacked. That's what she got for being so slow and being behind everyone else.
...
"Guys! We've got unwanted company!" she shouted a warning to the others.
Clarissa glanced back, and saw the shadows. "Crap! Why can't you just leave us alone?" she thought testily.
Pride did exactly what Joan expected, he went for the two that were farther back. Joan tried to run faster, but with limited success. Her legs weren't tired, but her lungs were; and they begged her to stop and gasp for sufficient air.
Anzhela saw the shadows headed for Joan. She gasped and pushed Joan out of the way just in time, but at her own expense. Pride smirk in success when he sliced a fair gasp into the Drachman's side. Knowing this girl wouldn't be able to avoid him very easy now that she was injured, he started attacking her relentlessly.
Noticing Anzhela's injury, Clarissa's mind whirred as she tried to be helpful. Seeing Pride aim for the defenseless Drachman who held her dagger shakily in her right hand as he left pressed against her wound, Clarissa panicked. Even though she knew she had little control over the alchemy she planned to perform, she quickly clapped her hands, slipped on a white glove, aimed at the end of the tunnel where Pride's shadows were, and snapped her fingers. An explosion of fire quickly filled the tunnel, evaporating any shadows in the area, including Pride's.
Joan had to admit that she was surprised. The secret of flame alchemy had been lost for years, ever since President Roy Mustang took it to his grave. .
As the flames raged, an idea formed in Tess's mind, after creating a couple walls behind them, she made a small tunnel in the ground. "Quick! Get in!" she shouted to everyone. "I'll close it behind us before he breaks through the walls and we can disappear."
Takara and Tess jumped into the tunnel without hesitation. Anzhela may have avoided being killed, but they should stop the bleeding as soon as possible. Joan helped Anzhela in the tunnel Tess made while the others jumped in as well.
"Clarissa, come on!" Joan called out from the extra tunnel Tess made. They would escape through the tunnel then seal it while Pride thought they kept going up through the existing tunnel. Clarissa followed them into the separate tunnel but stayed at the back of the group in case Pride caught on to their facade.
Tess closed the tunnel behind them to stop the flames, and Pride most of all, from following them. Pride ducked away from the flames and hid his face fromt he light. Once the flames died down without Clarissa there to fuel them, he continued forward to search for them, and missed the hasty alchemy hiding the tunnel they escaped through.
Anzhela gripped her injured side and her hand felt wet and sticky and the blood started to stain her fingers. They pressed forward a little farther and Joan helped her go forward.
Once they got further down the tunnel, Tess turned to Anzhela. "Here, let me at least stop the bleeding for now."
"Why don't I do it? I'm more experienced." Chun objected.
"Be my guest." Tess allowed.
Once Chun drew a circle and placed her kunai in the right places, Joan let Anzhela sit down. The Drachman moved her hand from the wound as, in a flash of light, Chun stopped the bleeding. The pain decreased but still persisted, though moving around too much would risk the wound bleeding again. Anzhela glanced at the Xingese Prince, trying to think of things she could say to comfort him.
Jian sat, back slumped and eyes locked on the ground, more defeated than he remembered feeling for a long time. He couldn't expect himself to lead an entire country that would rely on him if he became emperor if he could even save one girl who had believed he could do anything. Maybe if he'd been more focused, he could have been more helpful. His head sunk back into his hands as he bit back the curses he wanted to direct at everything.
Shay nervously watched Jian tear himself apart, unsure of how to console him in this state that she had never seen him in. "Prince..." she whispered.
The bodyguard became more worried every minute the Prince stayed like this. She understood how horrible it had felt to fail in an attempt to rescue someone, but out of all the ways she had thought he might have reacted, this was not one of them. Which brought to mind the stunning realization that he can suffer too, despite the fact he didn't seem to be that type of person. Perhaps he remained lighthearted and immature to ease the burden of the Yao clan's fate on his shoulders. Now that he experienced the failure to protect one of his clansman, Cai, he realized just how heavy that weight really was.
Analyzing Jian's reaction towards his failure to protect Cai, Meili knew his motives for becoming Emperor were as pure as she made them out to be when he had spoken to her. However, she wasn't any less surprised than the others to see his resolve crumple so quickly. The ex-assassin recalled that, even under the threat of death, he had refused to teach Kang, the Yu clan assassins' leader, and the rest of the assassins chi-blocking in his own childishly defiant manner and used his unique skill to escape. Because Meili avoided being paralyzed by the Prince, she was sent after him. She wasn't sure how it happened, but he convinced her that he would make a better emperor than her own clan's prince. He had told her, without meaning to, that her life's ambition of revenge had based upon a misconception.
Nobody noticed Meili sigh silently, the Prince had a lot to learn before he could become the Emperor of Xing. His limits was one of them.
Anzhela approached Jian with concern written on her face, but he didn't seem to notice. She debated about whether or not to talk to him, but shied away instead.
"We should get away from here as soon as possible so they don't find us," Tess said, and then approached Jian. "Don't give up hope. Maybe we can find a way to get Cai back, but for now we need to get out of here."
He shrugged Tess off and didn't say anything in response. He desperately wanted to believe Tess, but he had always been so confident in himself, and now that he had tasted the loss of defeat, he wasn't sure he could hold onto the hope he had lost when Cai had uncharacteristically struck him.
"Ready to keep going?" Tess asked everyone, turning her attention away from Jian's inward plight for the moment.
"Yeah," Takara said quietly, a little lost in thought.
"Yeah, we should get out of here quickly. I don't like being in these tunnels," Joan said, shifting her weight from foot to foot.
As they walked, Joan decided to ask Clarissa, "How did you learn flame alchemy? I thought the secret had been lost for years, ever since President Mustang died."
Clarissa blushed a little. "Yeah well... I've been researching it for a long time. Apparently, when he was learning it, he took a few note on a few pieces of paper, just a little bit of the basics. I'm guessing he couldn't always have whatever or whoever he was learning it from with him twenty-four/seven, so he took notes. I found those. But I'm not very good at it..."
Laura turned to her sister. "Why didn't you tell me!?"
Clarissa shrugged, becoming nervous under all of the attention. She buried her hands in her pockets.
Joan could sense her discomfort and tried to help. She pointed out, "Probably because she hasn't seen you for a long time."
Clarissa lingered quietly at the back of the group, happy for the change of subject when they spotted the light at the end of the tunnel. They exited into the outskirts of the city, quietly praising the sweet sunlight and fresh air.
"Where do we go now?" Joan asked. "I think the closest town is Eastwood. But I could be wrong."
"I think Frontera's closer," Takara piped up.
"You're probably right. We'll head back there," Joan decided. Let's go catch the bus back.
They headed to the bus stop and got on the bus when it came. Jian, Meili, and Shay seemed to prefer sitting on the roof of it. Once they got to Frontera, they got off the bus and walked through town again.