She waited on the rooftops, hiding out of sight waiting to see either the Xing girl or the brothers separate. Finally when the boys did break away she had to run to keep up with them so she could meet up with them. Reyna managed to cut them off as they were about to go into another building. Ed was surprised, "Reyna, we thought you were staying at the Briggs."
"I was given a job and I plan to do it. I just had to make sure no one saw my face." She said hoping through a window.
"Why are you so crazy about people not knowing who you are or where you are?" Al asked.
"Because I'm useless to Roy if people know. It's better if I stick to the shadows." She looked at the boys with a smile. They heard screaming down the hall and a little girl attacked Al in a hug. She sat back and waited and once Marcoh showed up she knew she would have to get the man alone, Roy had said he may be able to heal Jean, she had to at least ask.
Roy sat on the bed next to the one Jean was on and he sat there thinking about what Reyna had relayed to him, "You're sure that's what she said?"
"Word for word sir."
"How did he get out of prison…?" Roy was worried now.
"Who sir?" Jean had no idea what any of it meant except for maybe the part about the leopard.
Roy looked up at him, "Solf J. Kimblee, the crimson alchemist. He's taken the Elric brothers and their friend, the girl, Rockbell, to search for Scar. How he got out of prison is very concerning, and the fact that he has brought a hostage with him is even more so."
"Do you think Reyna will be able to handle it?" Jean was worried about her now, he had heard stories of the alchemist.
"She can't die, and that helps me to not worry about her as much at the moment. And she'll do what she needs to in order to keep the Elric brothers and the girl safe."
As Marcoh was explaining about the book they had and needed to translate an explosion went off across town. She looked at the boys, "I can go alone if you two want."
"Nah, there was a lot of military, three is better than one." Al said and they turned to leave. When they arrived at the building she thought she may be seeing things, two humanoids that were animals, but also men were fighting Scar. When the fatter one blew spit at them she avoided it, "That is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen!"
They quickly dispatched of the men and they all turned to Scar, he recognized the girl from their fight in Central. Ed and Al attacked, she knew they weren't going to kill him, they needed him and the man got distracted by Winry. When Miles came in behind her she looked to the man and listened as he told them all to leave. As he put a gun towards Scar she placed a hand on his wrist, "I'll have to kill you if you try to pull the trigger."
He stopped and looked at her and as Winry stepped towards Scar the brothers tried to stop her, and she asked to be let to speak with Scar. Reyna didn't change her stance, "Let her do it. We have time before more of Kimblees men show up."
After a moment of talking Miles said he had to take Scar in to pay for his crimes and Reyna turned on him, standing in front of the injured Ishvalan, "I told you, I'll have to kill you Miles. We need him."
Marcoh and May stepped out of the shadows and told everyone what Scar could help them do, why they needed him alive and not captive. She could see Miles coming up with a plan and she moved aside, knowing he would no longer pose any threat to Scar. She looked down at Ed, "I know you don't like it, but sometimes you have to do things like that in order to get done what needs to be."
She decides to head with the group going into the mines and looks at Miles, "It's better for me to stay out of Kimblees sight, he'll try to kill me if he figures out who I am. Take care of those two for me."
He saw as she pointed to the Elrics and she headed down to the mines.
She backed away from the rest of the group and slowed her walking to be next to Marcoh, "Doctor, if I could be so bold as to ask, can you heal a severed spinal cord?"
"What?" The older man looked up at her.
"Someone close to me had their spine severed while saving me from a homunculus. He can no longer use his legs." She kept her eyes forward, ashamed still about the injury being because Jean tried to save her, "If there is a way to heal him, I want to know about it and try it."
"I may be able to do something." Marcoh thought about it, "But it may take some time before I am able to make it to see him."
"The possibility of having it healed eventually means more to me than never knowing." She had a small smile, hoping that Jean would walk again one day.
When they exited the mines and found Al he told them Briggs was taken over by Central forces and Armstrong was no longer there. Reyna didn't like that a woman who wanted to get rid of her brother was now so close to him, plus now that she knew they had to decipher the notes before she could learn the how to always have her alchemy work, she thought maybe she should start her trek back to central so they could come up with a plan B while waiting.
Scar said he knew of Isvalan refugees in a small area nearby and she decide to go with them that far, she needed supplies to make the long journey back into the snow. They carried Al and took a break for the night and after he woke up and they started to reassemble him May had a thought, and once they had rearranged the notes they saw the country wide transmutation circle again. AL told them they couldn't give up.
They kept looking and Yoki sneezed sending the papers flying, when Zampano said he couldn't tell which side was the right side anymore it gave her an idea, "How do we know the side we had up was the right one in the first place?"
The others looked at her, Winrys answer sounded like a question, "Because we were able to draw the circle with it."
"But how do we know that was the side we needed?" She looked up at all of them and they realized what she meant.
"That's it!" Al yelled, "You take a bad situation and you flip it over, we need to put it back together and flip it over!"
They did what she and Al suggested and May redrew the circle and it was a new transmutation, one using alcahestry. She copied it down really quick, she needed to show her brother it when she returned and also to research it more. They needed to be ready in whatever way possible to keep the first circle from being activated, she needed to be ready. The next morning she departed to head back to central.
Roy walked into his home late at night and saw someone sitting in his chair in the corner of the room, he went to reach for his gun but she spoke, "You know that would do nothing to me."
"Reyna, since when so you hide when in a place your welcome?" He smiled at his sister as he turned on the light.
"Lately I've been enjoying sticking to the shadows, it makes the marks harder to see." She came over and sat next to him, "Plus with me realizing more and more people know who I am, I'm not that sure that I want to be seen by them."
"Did you learn what you need to?" He looked at her.
"Not exactly. We're figuring out how to fix this with alcahestry. We think it's possible." She spoke and then got quiet.
"What is it?"
"My alchemy…" She started, "I don't even have to move now. I just think about it and it happens. And it's stronger now."
He wrapped an arm around her, "Is it because the marks got worse?"
"That's the only explanation." She looked up at him, "Why do I have this amount of power? Why do they need this much power? What are they going to use me for?"
He could feel her shaking with anger and fear, "Reyna, I won't let them do anything to you."
"I don't know that you can stop them Roy, they will do whatever it takes to make this happen. And I don't want you getting hurt anymore." She looked forward, "I'll die before that happens, before they hurt anyone else again."
"Jeans going to head back East soon. You should go with him for the time being, make your plan, then let me know what it is. I know why you feel the way you do, and I won't stop you." Roy hated the words as he said them, but he knew she needed to do this without having to worry about him, that he would just hinder her.
"Alright. If you can keep me informed, I need to try and figure all of this out." She stood and stretched, "Are you hungry? Should I make you something?"
"A home cooked meal would be nice since you'll be leaving again soon." He tried to guilt her.
"Okay, go get changed."
The next day she walked through the hospital and knocked on his door. She smiled hearing him say for her to come in and when she did his own smile grew, "Reyna! I didn't know you were back!"
"Got in last night." She sat down next to him. He pulled her down for a kiss and held her there for a moment.
"I missed you." He wrapped his arms around her, "How was the north?"
"Cold." She laughed.
"Did you hate everything?" He smiled at her.
"Not as much as the last time, but yes." She placed a hand on his face, "How have things been here?"
"Boring, Mustang comes and visits a lot, keeps me updated on things. You left the wall just in time it would seem, there was an attack by Drachma."
Her heart stopped, "What?!"
"Yeah Briggs completely wiped them out though." He said and then saw her face had gone pale.
"The final blood has been spilt. We may not have as much time as we thought." She stood up and walked over the window, punching the sill, "We need move fast. I need to get word to the others. Possibly call in some favors."
"What kind of favors?" Jean looked over at her, worried about her.
"The kind that will help us win."
She managed to get a phone call to Al in Liore, she told him about Drachma and he told her about the promise day, when she got back to the hospital Roy and Jean had already gotten the message. After her brother left she looked at Jean, "Are you ready?"
"More than ever. I already have a place for us to stay, when we get there we'll get you in touch with your contacts. At least now we have a timeline." He smiled at her and she smirked back, "I can see you already have a plan brewing."
"We may be in one place the next few months, but we certainly won't be sitting still." She sat down next to him.
"Yeah I was planning on working there when we got back to Evi. Maybe we can help get some supplies put to the side for the crew in central."
"Good. I think that's a wonderful idea." She smiled at him.
He smiled back, "Why do I feel like that means you already have a plan solidified.
"I'll fill you in on everything when we get there, we don't know who can hear us here." She took his hand in hers, "I ran into Dr. Marcoh while in the North. He said he may be able to do something to help cure you, but that we have to take care of the problem at hand first."
"It's understandable, he has to figure out a way to reverse the transmutation circle that's been being planned years in advance in only a few months." He squeezed her hand, "It's okay if we aren't able to figure out a way for me to walk again. I think I'm slowly coming to terms with it."
She gave him a sad smile, "We'll work through everything together."
"Yeah…but Reyna, there's something I need to tell you." He couldn't look at her, he knew that this may be a deal breaker, but she deserved to know, "I…I don't think I can have kids anymore."
She lifted his chin to make him look at her before placing a kiss to his lips, "Jean, I has assumed as much. I didn't want to be direct about it though. And that's okay with me, maybe in a few years if and when we want children, we can adopt."
"Reyna." He whispered, she was so amazing, so understanding, and now all he did was fall short, "It also means that we may never be able to-"
"I know." She smiled at him, "That had occurred to me too. I've gone twenty five years without it, I'm sure I can go longer. And it doesn't mean that I can't hug you, sleep curled up next to you, kiss you, do all the things I already enjoy doing with you. Just because we may not be able to do that, doesn't mean we won't be able to do other things."
"I love you." He said, not thinking about how short of a time they had been together, just letting his feelings out because he did love her, he had loved her since she left for central with Maes, he should have told her then but he didn't so he knew he had to say it now.
"Jean." She said with a warming smile, she knew it was probably fast for normal people but they were far from that.
"You don't have to say it back yet. I just wanted you to know." He kissed her hand.
"But I love you too. And if I feel it then I should say it." Reyna let out a small laugh and he smiled at her pulling her down for a kiss.
"You made me nervous that I might have scared you off." He laughed pulling her down so her torso was lying across his as he kissed her again.
"You know it would take more than that to scare me off." She laughed too as he pulled her closer. He knew she was right, he may never be able to sleep with her but at least he was able to kiss her, and that in itself was remarkable.
Jean missed the way she used to dress, half tops and shorts, it gave him more skin to feel, but he understood why she wore pants and a long sleeve turtleneck shirt now. He pulled her closer and kissed her deeply as she ran her fingers through his hair and he loved the way her nails lightly scratched his head. His hand was cold and she moan quietly as it slipped under her shirt and up her back, he knew he should stop soon before they got too heated in a hospital room. With all his will he removed his lips from hers, "Soon we'll be able to do this anytime without having to worry about someone walking in."
"Why do I get the feeling your more excited about the anytime part than the part with someone walking in?" She laughed.
"Because that is what I'm more excited about." He smiled kissing her again quickly.
When they arrived in Evi, they took a car to the home Jean had been preparing for them. She couldn't believe what she saw when she got out of the car. It was a two story white house with a porch and the nearest house was off in the distance, "Jean, how did you manage this?"
He smiled rolling his chair next to her as the car drove away, "I'd actually been saving for a while, I bought it right before we left Eastern Command. It was the house I wanted to move into when I settled down."
"It's beautiful." She smiled at him.
"Yeah I just forgot that there were stairs at the front." He couldn't help but laugh, when he left the east the house was perfect, not so much anymore.
She looked down at him, "That's not a problem at all."
He saw blue sparks and the stairs had turned into a ramp at the front of the house, "Home renovation is going to be so cheap."
"Yes it will." She laughed. They went inside and decided to use the bedroom on the first floor as theirs since completely rearranging the house to have a ramp that went up to the second floor would prove difficult, "We can use the upstairs for other things…like storage."
"Storage of what?" He looked up at her as they settled at the dining table, "I've been dying to know this plan of yours."
"I've got some friends in the neighboring countries that owe me some favors. They have some very specific talents. Plus we have a friend in Xing that I know is going to want to get some payback."
"You mean…?"
"Maria Ross. She can help us procure weapons from there, they have very good variety of bombs over there."
"And what are your friends in the other three countries good at?" He smiled, liking this already, knowing the store would be a cover for their deliveries.
She smirked, "The Drachmans good at surviving, multiple trips across the desert would be nothing for them. One is a bomb expert, she can make bombs out of anything to do very specific things. Another is a gifted mechanic, from cars to guns, he can do whatever you ask. The last two are good at information and procuring items, if you want it, they can find it."
"So in other words you had a team full of insane bad asses." He smiled, "I think this will definitely help if we can get them. I'll be able to get us anything else we need by using the store and saying its inventory. It can also cover any costs we may have and disguise the frequent shipments of stuff that we get."
"I'll let them know what they're getting into I don't want to force them, I have to get word to them first though." She looked up at Jean, "After a week or so to get suspicion off of us, because I know they're watching, I'll have to sneak off to Trident. It's on the border of both Creta and Aerugo. Being able to bribe those countries border patrol will be easier than ours, once I get the message across to them I'll come back and I'll have to call in a favor to get in contact with Alexi in Drachma."
"Who do you know who can get that done for you?"
"You know Major Miles?" She smiled at him and he nodded, "He's the man I almost killed. He'll help if he knows what it's for."
"How do you plan to get in touch with him?"
"Falmans up at Briggs to remember. We relay the message to him, then to Miles." She looked at him, "How does it sound?"
"If we can pull it off then I think we may just pull the Colonels ass out of the fire." Jean smiled at her.
"We may have a few guests though."
"We have an upstairs and a basement that aren't being used." He replied, "I'm sure we can make due."
"Then we have a week." She sighed, "I also might head up to Liore for a little bit, Al said they're planning on being there for a while and it would be good for us to share information."
"Yeah I was thinking that kid found out a lot very quick." Jean agreed, "I have to admit, I like your plans a lot better than your brothers."
She laughed, "I like to have things thoroughly plotted out before I just go in. Roy only does that with the big stuff."