A/N: Okay, so to start off, you guy's are so freaking amazing! I was so nervous about chapter 11, so even though I said it in the replies, Thank you all so much! It's been so amazing to get all this attention, I just want you all to know that the reviews really do help me with story and character development a lot and keeping me motivated :3 so thank you, I'll keep writing my best to repay you guys for your support! ^_^
Funny story about this chapter; I wrote it one way in my notebooks, then I changed it because I knew it could be better and wrote about half of it the new way, then I had an even better idea and rewrote it again XD There were times I was scrambling to get it done on time, but I'm really happy with the way it turned out, I hope you enjoy it! Lighter, funnier tone to this chapter. :3
And just look at me ramble on and on, ^_^; I really gotta work on that, on to the chapter already!


'Damn it, I'm not worried about what happened in that alley anymore…' Mary thought to herself, as she walked back to the Devil's nest after her university classes '…but I still couldn't pay attention at all.'
It was only three days after the girl had found out about Greed and the chimeras and her brain was still spinning with all she'd learned. The whole day her mind switched from long winded conspiracy theories, to small fits of completely freaking out over the craziness she'd just gotten herself into.
'Well, no point in worrying about it now. It's not like I can back out.' She reasoned. The members of the Devil's Nest were her friends but Mary was well aware that they needed to keep their secrets just that.
'I don't think they'd kill me though, probably make a joke out of it for themselves and abandon me in a foreign country, or drag me out to the ruins of Xerxes and leave me there.'
The teen chuckled darkly a little at the plausibility of both those statements, then let out a hiss and clutched the upper right half of her chest. That fall off the stairs the day she saw Greed die for the first time certainly hadn't helped the kick injury at all. It had evolved from a irritating but nearly invisible wound, to a ugly bruise very quickly. Mary had gotten so caught up in the monumental secret she'd been let in on that she managed to keep it to the back of her mind, but now that some of the adrenaline from the weekend had worn off, the pain was coming back full force. She'd considered seeing the school doctor that day but she wasn't on the school's medical plan, so it would have cost an exponential amount. There was also the fact that she didn't want to be in the awkward position of explaining the injuries, especially since they'd see the one on her neck. Rumors had been spread far and wide by Travis, after Mary snubbed him on the Equinox, that she was some kind of delinquent. She had made it onto most of the professors "Keep an eye on" lists because of that, and since illegal conduct could get her scholarship taken away in a heartbeat, she figured it was best to keep apparent fight wounds to herself.
There was the possibility of asking the gang who they went to when they got hurt, but heaven forbid any of them find out she was so injured and kept it to herself for so long. Mary could already hear Martel yelling at her just thinking about it and who knew how Greed would react, considering she 'belonged' to him now.

'Maybe I'll ask Mason who he see's, a doctor he goes to should be in my price range.' She mused as she pushed open the door into the living room under the Devil's Nest.

SHA-KLAK!

"Eh…?" Mary stared in a complete blank shock for a moment at the knife that had just stuck in the wall a few inches from her head, before she tensed at the realization of what exactly it was. She turned sharply to the center of the room, ready to fight or run if need be and saw Dolcetto, Greed and Martel casually sitting around the room. Only Martel seemed to acknowledge she was there though.

"Boy, that is pretty bad." Stated the half snake woman. "If I'd wanted to kill you, we'd be cleaning up a mess right now." Mary then notice the knife missing from Martel's shoulder sheath.

"Wh-what the hell was that for?!" She screamed, to angry to let the pain in her ribs stop her.

"Proving a point." Greed said, finally turning to look at her with a slight smirk of amusement on his face.

"Proving what?! That you're a bastard? I already knew that thanks!"

Greed scowled at that but decided to let the girls rudeness slide for the moment, there was plenty revenge to be had later.

"Brat. If you're gonna be hanging around us from now on, you're gonna have to be able to take care of yourself." He said as he strode over and pulled the knife out, then turned the hilt to Mary.

"You've probably figured it out, but there are a lot of people who don't like us." Dolcetto said when the teen looked to him for some kind of explanation and/or sanity.

"People that don't care you're a girl and a kid." Greed added, wiggling the knife hilt at her again. This time Mary took the hint and grabbed it. "We can't be around to keep an eye on you all the time…" He continued, though the idea of just keeping the girl at the Devil's Nest permanently had crossed his mind. (The idea had been shot down when Martel reminded him that Mary would just run away if they tried to keep her prisoner.) "So Martel's gonna teach you to fight."

"Eh?" Mary said again, having trouble keeping up with the situation.

"Really, a sword is more practical for smaller people," Dolcetto mused, mostly to himself. "But since it would be too conspicuous for a student to carry one around, we figured knife fighting was the way to go, all you really need to be able to do is fend for yourself till you get a chance to run."

"You lost your pocket knife, right? You can use that one for now then." Martel said, indicating the knife Greed had just handed Mary, then grabbed the young woman's wrist and started dragging her through the door, toward the back yard. (Which was actually designed to be excess storage space.)

"Wait, what?! Right now?" The teenager protested but still too befuddled to struggle.

"Good a time as any. Don't worry, we'll keep the sheaths on, it would be a real waste if you got killed accidentally."

"Heh, you kids have fun now! Martel, try'n bring her back in one piece." Greed laughed as he disappeared up the stairs to the bar, apparently having somewhere to go.

"Well I don't know about him but I gotta see this." Dolcetto stated as he followed the two women out the door.

"Gah! Martel wait! At least let me change out of this skirt first!"


Mary had managed to get Martel to let her find some pants. (It had taken a fair bit of arguing to convince her that she wouldn't try to run away.) Now they stood in the walled off, back area of the Devil's Nest.
Mary knew that the gang practiced back there but they never did so when she was around (Which was one of the many mysteries that was explained over the past few days.) The place was floored with the same rough stone as the rest of the bar and had an old, high wooden fence. It was made even more drab by the fact that it was usually cast into deep shadow from the other buildings around it, so Mary had never had much reason to go back there. On closer exception now though, she realized that the fence really wasn't that old, it just appeared so decrepit because it was covered in slash, stab and what looked like claw marks. Mary did her best to keep her immediate 'Get the hell outta here!' instinct under control.

"For starters, do you have any defense training?" Martel asked, figuring a family bothered to teach all their kids basic alchemy in case of emergencies, would have thought they should know at least some basic combat moves.
Mary looked to the woman across from her. She had grabbed another knife when the teen was changing (Which mercifully still had the sheath securely on, if it hadn't been, Mary probably would have run for it.)

"Yeah some, my parents got really insistent on it when I decided to move so far away." She said, now feeling more stupid than ever over the events the previous week. Mary had gotten so used to the bad parts of town that she'd made several idiotic mistakes in a row. She resisted the urge to smack herself in the forehead.

"Alright, that'll make a good canvas." The chimera stated then suddenly lunged at the teenager. Luckily, for her sake, Mary was alert enough to side step out of the way.

"Wh-wait! Aren't you s'posed to teach me first?!" The girl cried, heart racing from the sudden rush of a adrenaline.

"No better teacher than experience." Martel said with a wicked grin, turning to face her again. Suddenly, the woman's face switched to a confused expression. "Though I probably should tell you you're holding that in the wrong hand." She pointed out, seeing the teen had slipped into a, pretty good, ready stance except for the fact that something seemed very off.

"Huh? No I'm not, I'm left handed." She replied.

"Eh?! Really?" The woman asked. Mary rolled her eyes, she knew the gang wasn't full of the most detail oriented people but honestly…

"Don't take it personally, middle class." Dolcetto said from the crate he was sitting on. "Martel can't tell left from right to save her soul." He chuckled. The dog chimera very quickly found himself getting hit in the head with the hilt of a knife.

"Alright, where were we?" She snapped as she retrieved her knife, then turned back to Mary. The teenager gulped and prayed that Martel had enough restraint to not take her irritation out on her.

0*0*0

Martel, naturally, was going easy on the girl but Mary actually picked up on the concepts quite quickly. Though she wasn't good enough to not get tripped, kicked and fake stabbed several times.

"That's five time's I could've killed you." Martel laughed, watching the girl stumble backward and nearly fall once again. Mary was starting to get very frustrated. She knew she could do better, she knew she was stronger but she was afraid to go all out in her current condition. The whole time the teen was half focused on fighting, and half on how she could get out of the impromptu training session.

'Fake asthma attack? Nah, that might start a real one.' She mused as she gulped down several labored and painful breaths. 'Maybe if I can hit her, she'll let us stop.'

Martel came again, this time with a long, wide right hook. It was more than likely a free hit, either that or some kind of trick but as long as she was offering, Mary was going to take the chance. In hopes that she could end the fight, the girl put all her strength into blocking the punch and was actually in the process of twisting Martel into an arm bar when she punched at Mary with her free hand.

"What was that?! You had her!" Dolcetto shouted when the teenager quickly disengaged and stumbled backward.

"Did you think the not hitting girls policy was a whole gang thing?" Martel laughed slightly at the look of shock on Mary's face. "Sorry that's Greed's bit, I'll beat you up all day if I have-" She abruptly cut off when the girl slumped to the ground.
"Mary? You okay?" The woman asked, now with concern. But the teenager didn't reply, she just sat there with her hands hovering near the spot where she'd been hit.
"H-hey that's not funny, don't try and get out of this by faking injury." Martel snapped as she went over to kneel in front of her, though in reality she knew it wasn't an act. Dolcetto had come over too, when he realized something was really wrong.

"Mary…?" He asked his younger friend slowly but she kept her head down. The teen gave a few deep breaths but they could just tell from that, that something wasn't right. Her posture made it clear she was in pain and with each gasp Dolcetto could hear a very faint hissing and crackling. When she finally looked up Mary's face was bone white and her eyes seemed out of focus.

"I think… I think we need to stop now Martel…" She said weakly, taking a few more raspy breaths in.

"What the hell middle class? She didn't hit you that hard." The dog Chimera questioned, really worried now.

"It's okay…I'll be okay." She mumbled in reply, not really paying attention. But it was obvious she was far from 'okay'. Martel hated dancing around subjects, so she decided to get right to the point and pull Mary's shirt down.

"Martel!" The other two cried, albeit one much more weakly than the other. Fortunately she only had to stretch the collar a few inches down before she saw the edges of an ugly, expanding bruise.

"What the hell is this?" She hissed, somehow able to fit worry and rage into one tone.

0*0*0

"I oughta kill you." Martel said darkly, looking absolutely serious.

They'd moved Mary to the create Dolcetto had been sitting on and made her explain what exactly had happened to cause the bruise. As expected, Martel was absolutely furious, Dolcetto was right next to her looking ready to bury the teen in a shallow grave as well. With her back against the wall, Mary felt like she was facing the firing squad.

"Sorry…" Mary mumbled, looking anywhere but the two.

"What is wrong with you?! Are you f-ing stupid?!"

"Hey, I get it but it's not gonna kill me, no need to talk like that." She said louder. Mary could understand why they were angry but being talked down to like that, especially since Dolcetto and Martel had to be less than ten years older than her, was more than she could take quietly.

"And that's the kind of idiotic thinking that ends you up like us!" Dolcetto roared, slamming a hand down on the box. Mary tensed and got a sick feeling when she stared into his angry blue eyes. That was right, the only reason they ended up as chimera's was because they'd both been injured somehow. Martel had accidentally stepped on a landmine and Dolcetto, he'd ignored a knife wound for too long and let it get infected, he was nearly dead from fever by the time the officers found out. Their's and Mary's were all totally different circumstances from each other but they had one root cause, carelessness.

"…I-" She stuttered.

"What if you'd been hit on the left side?!" He cut her off. "You could've damaged your heart! ever think about that?!"

"Ah…" Mary stuttered again. "…I-" She dropped her head, though not out a want to ignore them this time. "I'm sorry…" She whispered.

The older two sighed. The fact that there wasn't much of an age gap between them and Mary coming into play again, they were furious with her but the fact that they could remember exactly what it felt like to be in her position dulled it some. They were also torn over whether they were perfectly justified, or had no place lecturing someone for the same mistake that they'd made to a much higher degree.

"Well what's done is done, we can't change it now." Dolcetto said, a little less angrily. "Come on, we know a doctor that can use alchemy. He should at least be able to patch you up a little bit." He finished, as he gently pulled the girl up and supported her under one of his arms.


"You sure you're okay? you really should've rested longer." Martel admonished as they left the unofficial doctor's house with Mary still very pale and wobbly. Being kicked, neglecting the injury and finally falling down the stairs one after the other had caused one of the girl's ribs to fracture. It had pulled back into its correct position on its own before but the strain of fighting, then the punch from Martel, had been too much for the already abused muscles and tissue to take, so the rib took up the new position of resting against Mary's lung.

"The bar's not that far, he would have just kept stacking up the bill the longer we hung around." The teen said weakly. The doctor had been professional enough when he was treating her, but he definitely seemed like the type to milk as much profit out of a single person as he could. "Besides, it's past six already. After the other week, Greed starts to freak out if I'm even a few minutes late."

"Speaking of Greed…" Dolcetto turned to the two. "How are we supposed to tell him about this?" He was still enormously ticked off with Mary, but there were few things a person could do to get him to want Greed's full wrath cast down on them. The chimera shuddered at some terrifying memories.

The two women tensed and went wide eyed.

"Well, I was thinking I'd make fried rice and get him in a good mood first." Mary mused, resigned to the fact that they wouldn't be able to keep the injury a secret forever. Before she was even finished with the thought Dolcetto and Martel started yelling at her for even considering lifting the whole metric ton weight frying pan. The doctor had repaired her rib but his only real skill was the treatment of bones, as a result the muscles on the right side of her chest were still torn and her lung was more than likely bruised.
"Okay, okay! You're both right, it's a bad idea, I won't." Mary finally managed to slip in after the two had spent a good ten minutes berating her.

"Good. Though the idea of softening him up with food first isn't a bad one." Dolcetto conceded, scratching his chin. "If only there was a way…"

"Wait, Greed went out earlier right?" Mary asked as they came up around front of the Devil's Nest. "If the gods are merciful he might not be back yet, then I can just show you guys what to do. You'll get my pay for it." She rolled her eyes when she saw the look the pair was giving her.

"Huh fine, we'll do it. But this doesn't mean you're off the hook with us yet." Martel stated as they descended the stairs to the side entrance.

Dolcetto and Martel never got to fulfill their agreement, the gods were rarely merciful when Mary was involved, for some reason.

"There you are! Where the hell were you?!" Greed barked as the three entered the living area. "I come back and you're all just…" He snapped his fingers, looking very irritated. The group froze, they'd all been so busy thinking of ways to appease him, that they had completely neglected to make a plan for if Greed made it back before them.
He continued to stare but the trio stayed quiet, minds going totally blank at a crucial moment.
"What happened?" The homunculus asked darkly, knowing that sort of suspicious silence only appeared when someone was up to something. He saw Mary take a gulp and turn to look him in the eye.

"It was…" She wore a determined expression, apparently resolving to tell him the whole story, "I-...…..Nothing…" but she wimped out at the last second.

"Nothing my ass." The tall man snapped. "What's going on?" He started formulating theories as he looked the girl up and down, he noticed that she seemed flushed and worn out.
"Well, half-pint's still a virgin so you weren't all off having sex…"

"What is your problem?!"

"How the hell do you know that from just looking at me!?"

No matter how angry he was right then, Greed couldn't stop himself from laughing at their scandalized faces.

"That's it, I'm gonna go start dinner." Mary said, too annoyed to be skittish anymore and moved before Dolcetto and Martel could stop her.

"Eh! We're not finished here, brat." He said, grabbing Mary's shoulder as she tried to pass him, to which she immediately cried out in pain and pulled away as fast as she could.


"Is it safe?" Dolcetto asked quietly, peeking out from the hallway into the main room. The moment Greed found out about what happened the dog chimera made a speedy escape, not wanting to get blamed as well or have his eardrums blown out, for that matter.

"I-I think I'm gonna go deaf….." Mary said blankly,even more hoarse and shaky than when she'd first broken her rib. The teenager bore a dazed and slightly terrified look, like she'd just been slapped in the face or perhaps, been told she was a ghost and just didn't know it.

"It's actually sorta impressive," Martel, who'd managed not bolt for it, said as she removed the cushions she had pressed over her ears. "I think she's the only person besides you to get him class seven pissed twice less than six months."

"That…" Mary said in a tone of hollow disbelief. "Only rates seven…?"

"Yup, the first time was when he found out you were sleeping on the streets. Still sounded like a low seven though, didn't sound like he would've beat her up even if she was a guy." Dolcetto stated, rubbing his head. Even with retreating into the farthest corners of the basement and covering his ears, he still heard the yelling loud and clear.

"If that's only seven, what the hell are the other three?" The girl asked, not entirely sure if she really wanted to know.

"Class seven's kinda like a tornado, he gets really angry but he cools off pretty fast. Class eight is when he stays that mad at you." Martel explained.

"Class nine, you can't walk away from," Dolcetto added.

"And class ten is when they find your body at the bottom of Kauroy lake."
Mary stared at them wide eyed for a minute, they weren't sure if she was really that shocked or if it was the only expression she could assume after Greed spent over an hour reading her the riot act of all riot acts.

"So what's the verdict?" Dolcetto asked as he slid onto a couch, knowing that the homunculus wouldn't be satisfied with only one form of retribution.

"I'm of the job for a week…or well, maybe I am. My ears were ringing a lot." The teen answered, slumping back.

"What? That sounds like a vacation." He snapped.

"She doesn't get paid if she doesn't work, genius." Martel hissed. "Then she has to pay for the off week's living costs afterward and I'm pretty sure he said something about interest."
Mary groaned and sank further into the old couch.

"So basically, I'm working in the bar for free from now on…" She said ruefully.

"Ya got that right." Came a new voice. Mary yelped and tensed immediately. She sat totally paralyzed, like some sort of prey animal, as she heard the click of expensive boots get closer and closer. The girl jumped when a tall glass of water was slammed down on the inn table in front of her by a big tattooed hand, then the same person threw a small paper box at her face.

"Wha-?" She mumbled, still having the presence of mind to catch the item before it tumbled to the ground.

"Put one of those in the water then drink it." Greed commanded, looking less furious than before, but still plenty angry. "It's a painkiller, you're gonna ache like f-ing hell once the shock wears off." He said when the girl looked at him confused. "I've had the stuff for a while but none of the others have ever been stupid enough to need it. There's antibiotic in there too, you're regular immune system probably sucks since you're just a normal human."
He groaned and let out a 'tsk' when she kept staring at him, even more questioningly than before.
"I don't think you've quite got the whole 'Greed' thing yet kid." He hissed, leaning down very close to the teen, as usual having no concept of personal space.
"Don't get me wrong, I still wanna punch you in the face right about now but you belong to me too. My possessions aren't allowed to be totally miserable." The homunculus finished, then stormed off, muttering something along the lines of "F-ing kid making my f-ing life a f-ing nightmare."
"And you're gonna pay off for that medicine too!" He shouted back, making them all jump again.
The remaining three sat in silence for a few minutes.

"You do know what he means when he says that stuff, right?" Martel asked nervously, the girl knew about Greed's true nature but he'd never straight up said she was his 'possession' before.

"Ah!" Mary mumbled, coming out of her daze. She stared at the snake woman for a moment, then looked down and started fumbling with the package Greed had thrown at her.
"…Yeah... I sorta get it…" She said, dropping a large round tablet in the glass where it quickly started to dissolve. "I'm not sure he does though..."

Both Martel and Dolcetto stared.

Mary gazed back for a few minutes but realized they weren't going to reply she reached for the cup Greed had left her, the water in which was now milky white.

"Gah! Blagh!" She cried, nearly dropping the glass. "What the hell is in that stuff?!" The girl rasped, doubling over in disgust.

"It's medicine, it's not supposed to taste good." Dolcetto said, barely containing a chuckle. "Don't even think about not taking it." He snapped when Mary started to set the apparently vile tasting liquid down.

"I say we stick around to make sure she drinks it, slowly…" Martel suggested, a cruel grin appearing in her face.

"Yeah, I like that plan." Dolcetto said with an equally evil smile. "Oh and she's gonna get to taste Roa's cooking soon now, isn't she?"

"We should ask him to make stew."

"I hate stew…" The girl whimpered quietly.

"We know." The chimeras said in unison.


A/N: Ta-da! How was it? I hope everything was in character and the plot was believable :3

Yes, the chimera's have classes for Greed's anger XD I figured they would since he's so temperamental. So Dolcetto, wanna tell us what other levels are like?
Dolcetto: Why me?
Me: You're the one that tick's him off the most, or you did before Mary came along.
Dolcetto: Fair point, alright fine.
Classes 1,2 and 3 are regular run-of-the-mill angry/annoyed.
Class 4, he's pissed now, you're in big trouble if you don't think of something quick.
Class 5 happens when he's so annoyed or exasperated with you that he can't even bring himself to shout. You're not off the hook though, he'll go get a stiff drink or two and come back for revenge.
Class 6, whatever you just did is so stupid or ridiculous that he actually finds it funny and will probably laugh for a good ten minutes, he'll still be pissed as hell when he's done though.

Hope you enjoyed that! ^.^ remeber, review's are not an obligation but they are freaking awesome X3