Author's Note: Just to let you all know, I've updated all of the previous chapters, mainly to fix grammer and continuancy errors. (27th May 2011)

Flame Vs Flame

Chapter 10 – Fight Me To The Death!

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Jennifer called out again when the military guys she knew where around here somewhere didn't appear. As much as Jennifer could be a patient person, she had the sense that she didn't have all day to wait for them, nor could she could she go around and explode every inch of the area around the warehouse until she found them. The small corner of her mind that could still think freely wanted her body to stop, to turn around and kill those that had sent her after her own brother. This was impossible though, as it did not have the strength to break the 'safety measures' those people had used to control her.

Gun fire rained down on her from a nearby window, high in the roofline of buildings surrounding the courtyard in front of the warehouse, yet the shots were barely aimed to wound let alone do serious enough damage to slow Jennifer down. That would have to be Hawkeye; the blonde woman who had piercing eyes like those of a sniper, and a sharp tongue to boot from the comment Jennifer had overheard her make to Mustang. Jennifer ripped the sleeve from her right arm and made a point of showing her arm, the slightly pinker than normal flesh the only sign that merely hours ago she had been severely burnt there.

"Aim to kill or you'll never beat me!" The gun fire stopped and a distinctive snap hiss could be heard across the courtyard, Jennifer leaped to the side just in time as flames burned to life where she had been standing. Readying her own flames, Jennifer spun around and spotted the two men dressed in military blues that had stepped out into the open. A small smirk passed over her lips as she recognised them as Mustang and Havoc, the only man that could combat her flame alchemy and... and her brother. The pulled heartstrings would have normally made her hesitate, but today she couldn't and she immediately flung a fire ball in their direction.

A fight broke out then, between Jennifer and the military officers tasked with this mission. Jean put himself out there to fight against his sister, but was unable to put his whole heart behind it wishing that he could have done something to make things turn out differently. Jennifer suffered a number of burns and bullet wounds during the fight, though the combination of them wasn't enough to slow her down let alone stop her in her tracks. It seems that with those people in control of her through the 'safety measures', she would just keep on fighting regardless of the fact that it could make her injuries worse. All the while, in the back of Jennifer's head, the small part of her that was still under her control, fought to break through, to stop fighting and lay down for whatever fate had planned next.

"Stop!" Everything suddenly stopped when Jennifer caught Havoc's arm behind his back, pinning it there in a painful manner to hold him in place. A fireball burnt in her other hand, held dangerously close to his chest. Havoc shifted to pull himself away from the explosive fireball.

"Please, Jen, stop this." He spoke to her, pleading to the part of her that was still his sister. It was hard to believe that only a matter of days ago, he had thought his sister dead – and yet here they were, her suddenly back in his life alive and well, and he instantly that much closer to death then he had ever been in his military career. "We're here to stop those people, remember? You wanted to help us stop them so that they couldn't hurt anyone ever again."

"... Alphonse told you what happened inside the warehouse, right?" Jennifer replied, her voice catching slightly. "They have more control over me than I thought... you have to stop me, brother, because I cannot do it myself."

"Let him go, Jennifer!" Mustang shouted, closing some of the distance between them. Jennifer took a step back, dragging her brother with her.

"Mustang, you have to go after those people now! They are still inside the warehouse, waiting for me, but if I take too long they will leave. You have to get them now, before they can hurt anyone else, before they ruin anymore lives the way they ruined mine!" Jennifer begged, tears ready to build up and stream from her eyes.

"Let the Lieutenant go first!" Mustang commanded, readying his gloved hand to use his flame alchemy. Havoc and Mustang shared a look in the moment it took for Jennifer to speak again, a message shared between them silently, Havoc only giving the slightest of nods.

"I... I can't do that. They want me to bring him with me; they ordered me to give them my brother..." Havoc dropped to the ground then, breaking free of Jennifer's grip - she had barely a moment to realise that her brother had broken free of her grip before Mustang rubbed his gloved fingers together and hit her with a fire attack. Jennifer screamed in pain, a high pitched noise of pure agony, getting hit with a secondary fire attack when she lost control of the fireball she'd been holding. The attack wasn't anywhere near as ferocious as it could have been, even including Jennifer's own fireball. Mustang let up the attack after a moment, and Jennifer collapsed to all fours on the ground, shaking all over, her skin blacken from the burns, scraps of her clothing hanging from her body.

"Jennifer...?" A dry hacking sound could be heard as Jennifer tried to breathe through her scorched lungs. Mustang had held back his attack, knowing that he would have had to hit her harder than that to take her out. He could not do it though, as much as he knew that it was the soldier thing to do, Mustang's heart simply wasn't in it to attack someone following orders in such a way. That and he had to admit that she was a rather attractive woman. Jean worried over his sister, both amazed and horrified at the burns over her skin – how could someone withstand that kind of attack? It couldn't just be whatever experiments those people had done to her, could it?

"Lieutenant." Mustang simply stated the rank, drawing back Havoc's attention with the commanding tone. Understanding the signal, Havoc forced himself to turn from his sister and follow his Colonel towards the warehouse. Suddenly gunshots rang out from the other side of the courtyard, Hawkeye had spotted some figures leaving he warehouse from her snipers-nest. Signalling Mustang, he and his lieutenant rushed towards the fleeing figures, their backup moving in from the other side.

"You could... couldn't..." Jennifer chocked out, collapsing to the ground even as the most minor of her burns started to heal. "You couldn't... fight me to the death... could you... Mustang... you sexist... chauvinist bastard."