*There was the low growl of a motor outside, growing closer. A faint click announced Riza cocking the hammer back on her gun in the next room. "Who is it?"

"What?" Ling was straining his ears to listen.

"You can tell if someone is human or homunculus. I lost that skill when I became what I am now."

"Three… four humans, I think. I can sense four human spirits. But your Fuhrer's seeming is that of a human. He makes things tricky."

There was a murmur of voices outside, followed by the slamming of car doors. "Well I'll be." Elena said, standing up suddenly and pushing through the doorway. "That sounds like Doctor Knox."

Riza was flat against the door that lead outside, gun up. She jerked her head towards the voices that were growing louder. Elena nodded, mouthing, "Roy." She inched the door open a few inches and peered out. She waved to the shapes in the darkness. "Quickly!" she hissed. "Doctor Knox, we need to hurry."

"Is everyone in on this but me?" The irate old man muttered before he stepped inside the shack, eyes adjusting to the single kerosene lamp burning on the table beside RanFan's bed. Roy Mustang, Edward Elric, and Alphonse Elric slid through the door after him. With a last furtive look, Elena closed it firmly and sealed it with alchemy.

"Will she be all right?" Ling hovered over RanFan anxiously, Doctor Knox immediately setting to work. Roy and Riza were deep in conversation as she showed him Gluttony in the next room. Ed and Al looked on grimly.

"Young lady, bring the lamp closer." Doctor Knox ordered, peering closely at RanFan's crudely bandaged shoulder. The girl was lost in fever and pain.

Elena complied, holding the lamp high. Doctor Knox uttered a grunt of thanks, glancing up before examining his patient again. His double-take would have been comical if the situation hadn't been so serious. "Colonel Marcoh!" he sputtered. "I mean… General Marcoh! What are you doing here?"

"Apparently, I'm doing what everyone else is doing: hiding." Elena answered. "Long time no see, Doctor. How've you been? No ciggie, I see."

"You died in Ishbal. I performed the autopsy myself." Doctor Knox said, brows furrowed behind his square glasses. His frown appeared deeper than it was, due to his five o'clock shadow.

"Apparently you haven't gotten the memo. I was resurrected with a Philosopher's Stone as a homunculus and hid for seven years with my family in Xing before finally traipsing my way back to the hell-hole called Amestris out of sheer curiosity where I was prodded and stabbed by a number of different people then reinstated as a Lieutenant Colonel at Central and as a double-agent to Mustang's cause."

Knox stared at Elena for a moment longer before turning away with a grunt. "Marcoh always had a strange sense of humor. Goes to show you'd be no different."

"Will. She. Be. All. Right?" Ling repeated in a tense, highly irritated voice. RanFan's knuckles were white on his, the tendons standing out on the back of her hand.

"You say she was running around in a sewer?" Knox said, peeling away the bandages.

"Yes."

"Now why the hell would she be doing that!?"

"We were escaping and we split up." Ling said tightly, eyes dark. He obviously felt great guilt over the incident.

"What cut her arm off? It's a clean wound. Professional, even."

"It was cut off with a kunai- what you'd call a throwing dagger. She was first wounded by a sword."

"The wound's still pretty clean, amazingly. I can't even tell that the wound was exposed to bad air. Did you disinfect it?"

"HuiLang did." Ling said. Knox gave him an uncomprehending look before Ling explained, "Elena cleaned the wound and stopped the bleeding."

"See, I am useful sometimes." Elena muttered. "Doctor Knox, can I help?"

"You say you cleaned the wound and stopped the bleeding?" Knox reached reflexively to puff on a cigarette he didn't have.

"Yessir."

"How?"

"Alchemy. I learned a small amount of the Rekinjutsu style of alchemy when I was in Xing."

"Are you squeamish?"

Elena frowned, eyebrows at vastly different levels. "Mr. Knox, I just got my cover blown and am likely to be taken apart in several nasty, inhumane ways and I've spent years beating the shit out of people. Squeamish. Really."

"Fine then. Hold her shoulder down. Young man, grab the young lady's feet and make sure you don't get kicked in the face. She's not totally delirious from a fever brought on by infection, so she'll be feeling this."

The screaming was bad, but Elena had heard far worse. She just hoped that Ed (or, more likely, Al) had thought to seal the walls so that little sound escaped.

They sat around brooding an hour later, Riza and Elena out on guard.

This left Elena alone with her thoughts and enough time to puzzle through them.

She had settled herself flat-bellied on the roof of the rundown house, listening to the crickets. Winter was coming, and the insects chirping were letting everyone know it. It's so freaking cold... She shivered, pulling the overcoat she had borrowed from Roy tight around her shoulders. Cold is death to anyone with automail. In Xing, the frosts would be creeping across the plants in the Yao Clan Estate's garden. The kangaroo rats in northern Xing would be hunkering down in their burrows, the snakes curled so tightly that they were almost eating their tails….

Ouroboros. The spot between her shoulder-blades itched with the mere thought of the dragon that devoured its own tail. She snarled silently, hand coming to rest on her left side. The skin stretching over the bones scraped and chafed against the sharp metal edges whenever she moved. She'd have to consult someone about fixing that sometime soon. She heard a creak and quickly rolled off of the roof, taking some shingles with her.

"Colonel Marcoh?" Riza had heard the noise and had come to investigate.

"I'm fine. Sorry. I'm too heavy for the roof." Elena got to her feet, wincing as her ribs pierced through her skin then healed again. They stood in silence. "Lieutenant Hawkeye, what do you think of homunculi?"

"We should remain alert." Riza answered, peering down the length of her rifle. Elena frowned, eyes narrowing as she detected the avoidance of the question.

"Lieutenant Hawkeye. Answer me."

"Lieutenant Colonel Marcoh-" Riza met the younger woman's eyes unflinchingly. "-sometimes the truth is not the best thing to say. With all due respect, no one knows whether to treat you as the teenager you look or the general you were buried as. Still more confusion is added to those of us who know that you are a homunculi and the small trust some of us have built up has been severely lessened by the knowledge of your actions as a double-agent. I find it hard to trust you when you are made of the same things as that monster tied up inside." Riza jerked her head in the direction of the house.

"Ah." Elena said, closing her eyes with a show of feigned indifference. "So that's how it is. Al doesn't seem to have this problem."

"Alphonse-kun is a human soul bound in a suit of armor. He is still human, in a matter of speaking."

"Wouldn't that be racist?" Elena asked lightly, her eyes glittering. "Or speciesist or something?" Riza's expression didn't change.

"I have a dog. I'd trust him with a gun more than a homunculus."

"Even a half-assed homunculus?"

"A homunculus is a homunculus. Don't think you're different just because you don't want it. Enemy officers don't remain long in our ranks. Choose a side instead of serving both. Don't smile and stab at the same time. It may not be you now, but it will be. That's reality." And she walked off, completely alert to her surroundings as she went around the side of the house.

A/N: Reality check from Riza. Yikes. I respect that woman and so (though grudgingly), does Elena.