"God does not play dice with the universe; he plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time." – Terry Pratchett, Good Omens

Chapter Twenty-Five:

Not All There

"Jeez Annora, can't you even stay out of trouble for one day?"

The girl blinked dazedly up at her friend before she reached up and weakly swatted him across the face.

"Oh, and you're one to talk," she gritted out as she forced herself to sit up under her own power, steadfastly ignoring the fact that the entire hallway was currently acting like a rowboat in the middle of a typhoon. That is, until she tried to get to her feet and instead fell flat back on her ass, almost cracking the back of her head against the brick wall behind her before Ed intercepted her by catching her by the shoulders.

The Fullmetal Alchemist frowned slightly as he watched the girl's sudden lack of coordination, and immediately held up one gloved finger in front of her face.

"Annora, follow my finger," he ordered gently before he moved it back and forth in front of her face, watching how the teen struggled to keep her eyes on his white-gloved finger. "Shit, you're really out of it, aren't you?"

Annora scowled at the blonde before she tried to flip him the bird. 'Tried' being the key word here, seeing as she held up her index finger instead, so the gesture was far less than insulting than it had intended to be.

"Bite me. I'd like to see you get your ass thrown into a wall and still be able to see straight."

Ed chuckled slightly before a frown crossed his face. "Yeah, Al and I saw your little flying lesson from down the hall. So who the hell did you piss off enough to make them do that to you?"

The teenager shot her friend a dirty look as she forced herself into a crouching position, trying to ignore the wave of nausea that followed the action, before she looked up at the broken window.

"Let's just say that Envy thought that it would be great fun to follow me home," she growled darkly, and Ed's eyes widened slightly at this information before a shrill scream broke off their conversation. Annora flinched at the noise before she forced herself to her feet and peered into the library, only to go dead white at the sight that met her eyes.

Envy stood in the middle of the library, with Lust and Gluttony flanking him on either side, a sadistic sneer planted firmly on his face as he held Katie up in the air by her throat.

"Hey Lust, can I eat this girl?" Gluttony whined as he gazed up at Katie with the same expression dogs do when they're begging for a treat. The buxom homunculus ignored his plea as Envy tightened his grip on the girl's throat, and Katie managed to gasp out a retort.

"No, you wouldn't want to eat me! I'm a nerd, you'll get nerd germs!"

"Somehow, I don't think that'll stop him," Envy drawled, a murderous glint in his eyes. "But why worry, girl? You'll be dead before he even gets your corpse! That is, of course, only if I don't feel like I haven't avenged myself to the fullest extent."

The homunculus paused for a second, apparently thinking, before he pulled Katie's face close to his and smirked, his eyes shining with a combination of sadistic glee and utter hatred as he sneered knowingly at the now-cringing girl. "You'd be surprised what you can live through."

Annora's vision went red as she stared at the sight of the homunculus holding her best friend in a stranglehold, and clearly enjoying it. The teen swore that she felt her blood pressure skyrocket, and she clenched her fists so hard that her knuckles turned a bloodless white. Without even acknowledging Ed or Al's existence, or their protests as she wrenched herself free from Ed's grip, she barreled towards the library doors, slamming them open while using her shoulder to take the brunt of the charge.

"You get your scummy hands the FUCK off my friend, you goddamned himbo wannabe!" she snarled out as all eyes focused on her, and more than one of the teachers gasped at the picture that she presented. With lacerations from the glass and wire covering her exposed skin, and blood dripping into her left eye from the cut just above her eyebrow, as well as torn clothing and the murderous expression on her face, Annora knew that she probably looked like death warmed over.

She was just in too much pain, and way too pissed to care.

"Well well well, look who survived going out the window," Envy sneered as he dropped Katie unceremoniously in a heap on the floor, leaving the bespectacled girl to scramble away from him while gasping for breath. Annora noticed this, and immediately her eyes narrowed even further as she glared venomously at the green-haired homunculus.

"Yeah, well, as it turns out, Heaven doesn't want me, and Hell is afraid that I'll take over," she retorted pithily as she stared defiantly at Envy. "So they had nowhere else left to send me but back here. Apparently I'm not exactly welcome there. Although Satan did mention something about making sure that I gave your sorry ass a one-way ticket downstairs. Apparently he needs a new bitch or something like that."

Envy turned a very disturbing shade of puce at this comment, and Annora caught the sound of a muffled snort from the other side of the broken window. Obviously Ed found her comment amusing, even if Envy failed to see the humor in it.

Knowing that she was playing with fire, Annora tried to look nonchalant as she circled around the three homunculi, noting with grim satisfaction that they all turned around to follow her. The sixteen-year old forced a condescending smirk onto her face as she looked at Envy, and paused for a moment.

"You do know what that means, right? To be Satan's bitch, I mean," she jeered as she looked the irate homunculus straight in the eye. "Because you sure as hell already dress the part. I've seen some of the school sluts wear less revealing clothing than that. While swimming."

Envy let out a wordless, animalistic snarl of rage as he threw himself forward at Annora, and the teen barely managed to scramble out of the way. Lust watched the fight for a few moments, an odd little half-smirk on her face, before she started jabbing out at Annora with her nails, giving the girl cause to launch out a litany of incredibly foul verbal abuse as she dodged both Lust and Envy's attacks while Gluttony just stood off to the side and watched the entire thing with a stupid grin on his face.

With the trio of Sins thus occupied, Ed snuck forward through the library doors and approached Katie, motioning for her to go through the heavy doors as he shoved Annora's backpack into her hands, along with a certain canine tagalong, before he darted back behind one of the tall bookcases. Alphonse on the other hand, approached the assembled teachers and students huddled in the back room, trying to appear as non-threatening as a seven-foot suit of armor possibly could.

"You really need to get out of here," he said as he bowed politely at the assembled people. "Is there a back door that you can use to get out of here?"

One of the librarians nodded weakly, obviously trying to comprehend how a talking suit of armor was moving on its own. Al immediately moved to block the door to the main portion of the library, trying to look reassuring as he did so.

"I'll guard the door while you get everyone out," he offered before he was distracted by Annora shrieking a series of unrepeatable profanities that she had probably learned from Ed. When he turned back around to face the crowd of teachers and students, he suddenly found himself faced with a rather intimidating-looking woman who was standing in front of him with her arms crossed in front of her chest, her graying hair pulled back into a severe bun.

"I trust that you really are a friend of Miss Thomas this time young man," she stated sternly, giving Al a warning look. For someone who had just seen a shapeshifter for the first time, Mrs. Robins was handling the shock fairly well.

"Yes ma'am, I am," the boy said as he bowed politely to the older woman. "I promise that my brother and I will keep her safe."

"I didn't say anything about keeping her safe," Mrs. Robins pointed out with a small smile. "That girl won't let anyone protect her. All I ask is that you make sure that she doesn't get herself hurt dealing with that thing that was in here earlier. I would hate to lose one of my best students."

Al mentally winced as he remembered how much effort Annora had put into standing up out in the hallway, and decided that her teacher didn't need to know about that for the time being. Instead, he just nodded once in agreement before he turned around to face the main portion of the library.

"I'll do my best," he promised quietly. Mrs. Robins looked somewhat mollified at his statement as she took a step backwards and made as though to approach the rest of the staff and students leaving through the back door to the library.

"That's all that I ask."

With that statement, she disappeared into the crowd while Al turned around to focus on his job of blocking the doorway by whatever means necessary. Unfortunately, he also turned around just in time to see Annora get thrown straight into one of the library's many bookcases by Envy, her face screwing up into a pained grimace as she fell to the floor in a bruised heap. The girl swore that she felt something in her chest crack when she hit the floor, and tried not to let herself become physically ill at the wave of nausea that threatened to swamp her.

Something told her that whatever had cracked was probably one of her ribs.

"Aw, what's wrong?" Envy sneered mockingly as he stalked up to the injured girl, who was struggling valiantly to get to her feet. "Can't the little bitch keep the promises that she makes? After all, I thought you said that would kick my ass." The homunculus looked thoughtful for a few moments before he flashed her a patronizing smirk. "What is that belief that you stupid humans have? Oh yes, Equivalent Exchange. So tell me, girl, do you think that Equivalent Exchange will save you now?"

Annora hesitated for a moment, a somewhat unsure expression flickering across her face as she thought over what Envy had just said, before she rolled her eyes upwards and gave him a scornful look.

"You know what, if you really want to see Equivalent Exchange, you could always shut up and let me kick the shit out of you," she said flatly, although the fact that the corner of her mouth twitched upward slightly into an strained smirk betrayed the fact that she wasn't entirely sure of the situation herself. Envy scowled slightly at the insult before he resumed his typical cocksure attitude.

"Do you honestly believe that I would ever possibly lower myself to letting a worm like you harm me?" he cackled. "That blow to your head must have affected you more than I thought."

Annora let out a harsh, depreciating laugh that was completely unlike her as she glared venomously up at her tormentor.

"That's what you think. And by the way, I never said that I'd kick your ass," she managed to force out as she slowly stood up, using the bookcase to help support her, before she flashed the homunculus a cocky smirk. "All I said was that I'd be getting a front-row seat to the truly spectacular kicking of your ass."

Confusion flashed across Envy's face as he stared at Annora, arching a green eyebrow upwards in bewilderment.

"And what do you mean by that?"

The girl merely grinned wolfishly at him just as a flash of alchemic light flared up behind him and the other two homunculi, and all three of them were promptly impaled through the chest from behind by a series of lethal-looking stone spikes. Ed scowled darkly as he stepped out from behind the bookcase where he had been hiding and gave Annora a concerned look when he saw that she was holding onto one of the shelves in a white-knuckled grip just so she could stay standing.

"You gonna be okay?" he asked as he approached his friend, who now looked very pale as she tried to keep her breathing shallow.

"I'll live… I think," she quipped weakly as she gave Ed a faint grin before she glanced over at the currently inert forms of Envy, Lust, and Gluttony. "C'mon, we need to get the hell out of here before they wake up again. As much fun as it was pissing Envy off, I don't think I can survive another round of 'kick the Annora'. I think the bastard cracked at least one of my ribs when he was punting me around."

Ed winced sympathetically as he gently pulled Annora away from the bookcase, only to freeze when he heard the taller girl let out a muffled grunt of pain. Before he could say anything, a bone-chilling laugh broke through the heavy silence permeating the library.

"Well, it sounds like the loud-mouthed bitch finally hurt herself," Envy jeered as he wrenched himself free from the spike, the wound healing almost instantly. Ed scowled before he roughly thrust Annora behind him, assuming a defensive position in front of the startled teen.

"Don't you even think about touching her," he spat, glaring daggers at the homunculus. Envy smirked darkly at the two teens before he bared his teeth at them, clearly enjoying Annora's instinctive recoil at the sight of the unnaturally pointed tips.

"Oh, and how are you gonna stop me, Fullmetal Pipsqueak?" Envy sneered before he glanced over to where Al was standing. "Do you honestly think that you and your tin can of a brother can do anything against us? There's three of us against you three twerps, and we can't die. You can."

"Bull," Annora suddenly growled out as she glared at the green-haired Sin. "What do you want to bet that if we kill you enough times you'll finally stay dead?"

Envy gritted his teeth as he stared at the girl, an odd look crossing his face as he shot her an irritated glare.

"You're not nearly as stupid as you lead everyone to believe, are you?" he hissed darkly, and Annora merely smirked wryly in response.

"Got it in one."

A tense silence fell between the homunculi and the teenagers, and Ed made a soft noise of irritation in the back of his throat as he glared murderously at Envy. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to just charge into a fight with the lanky homunculus with fists swinging, but the fact that Annora couldn't defend herself properly held her back. He knew that the second he went after Envy, Annora would be a sitting duck.

He absolutely despised situation like this, ones where it was a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. Suddenly, a much-welcomed distraction decided to present itself in the form of a certain raven-haired fangirl.

"Ed, if you make them barf up the Red Stones they've eaten, you can kill them!" a voice shouted out, and all five of the individuals participating in the stand-off whipped around to stare at Katie, who stood near the entrance of the library while holding Annora's backpack close to her chest. The other girl let out a loud groan at the sight of her friend and fought the urge to cover her face with her hand, an expression of weary exasperation flickering across her features.

"Damn it Katie, I told you to run for a reason," Annora muttered irritably under her breath as she tried to pull away from Ed so he could have the freedom to fight if need be. The alchemist shot her a warning look out of the corner of his eye when she tried to move that told her plainly that he wasn't going to let her do that.

"Don't move," he ordered sternly, and when he caught sight of the look that Annora was giving Katie, he chuckled softly. "Hey, don't look at me. She's your friend."

"I know," the girl retorted dryly. "And I'm going to muster up the will to live just so I can have the altogether questionable privilege of kicking her ass all the way from here to Shanghai."

"Get in line."

"Sorry, but I've known her longer. I have dibbs."

Envy stared at Katie for several long moment, an indescribable expression flickering across his face as he glowered at the human teenager, who seemed to almost visibly wilt under the homunculi's venomous glare. An uncertain look flickered across Katie's face as she took a step backwards, and her eyes widened in horror as she realized that she had just basically painted a bright red target on her back.

"You…" the homunculus snarled as he took a step towards the dark-haired girl, who let out a frightened 'eep!' as she pressed her back up against the library doors. "How the hell do you know that?!"

Annora hissed out a curse as she jerked away from Ed and stalked towards the Sin, trying not to wince as the movement tugged painfully at her ribs. When she was close enough, she reached out and snatched up a rather large hardcover dictionary from one of the bookshelves and threw it hard at Envy's head. The homunculus swore loudly as the weighty book collided with the back of his head, and he whipped around to stare at the other girl.

"Do you have some kind of a death wish, bitch?" he demanded harshly. Annora didn't respond as she stared at him stonily, her expression hard, before she said three words that made Envy fall silent.

"I told her."

Lust and Gluttony both faced the brunette girl with identical expressions of shock, while Envy had an expression on his face somewhat akin to someone who had just be slapped upside the head with a dead fish and then told that flying hamsters had invaded the planet. Ed just gaped incredulously at Annora, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly in shock at the girl's suicidal stupidity. Al, having gotten all of the students and teachers out of the library safely, chose that moment to grab Katie and forcefully haul her out of sight out into the hallway.

A strained silence fell over the library as the three homunculi stared at Annora, who merely looked back at them stonily, before Envy finally snapped out of his trance.

"You did what?" he asked menacingly, and Annora shrugged nonchalantly in response.

"You heard what I said," she stated with a slight smirk as she quirked an eyebrow. "Or are you deaf as well as stupid?"

Envy let out a low growl at the insult before a look of sadistic cunning flashed across his face, and he took a step towards Annora.

"Oh really?" he sneered. "And why don't I believe that? You don't know shit about alchemy, so how could you possibly know anything about a homunculus? I think that your friend over there is the one with the alchemic know-how, and you're just the brawn."

The girl didn't respond as she stood stiffly in front of the three homunculi and glared daggers at Envy, and she didn't need to. Envy smirked at Annora's lack of a response as he cracked his knuckles menacingly before he looked behind him in order to return to terrifying Katie. The complete and utter lack of the girl's presence in the now-abandoned library startled him for a moment, and Annora smirked grimly at the irate expression on the homunculus's face.

"Who said anything about me not being smart?" she asked as she gave Envy a satisfied grin. "Street smarts and random knowledge; it's a beautiful thing."

"Says the stupid brat who is dumb enough to stand in front of me unarmed," Envy growled irritably as he flexed his fingers menacingly, almost as though he wanted to strangle the girl. Actually, he did want to strangle her. "You're hardly a threat to me, human."

Surprisingly, Annora didn't seem cowed one bit as she smirked at Envy, although there was a slightly maniac glint in her eyes as she stared fearlessly at the irate homunculus.

"I am armed with random knowledge, and that makes me dangerous..." she quipped brightly with a grin, and even Envy couldn't repress the slight shudder that ran through him as the girl's expression suddenly turned downright homicidal. "Especially since that random knowledge is of alchemy."

It was only then that Envy noticed that Annora had drawn a transmutation circle on the palm of her left hand using her own blood while she had been distracting them, and by then it was too late for any of the homunculi to react as the wounded girl abruptly dropped to her knees and slammed her hand down on the ground with a loud, wet-sounding 'slap'. Startled shrieks and furious curses ripped through the air as the ground beneath the three homunculi suddenly erupted into a veritable thicket of razor-sharp spikes that jutted upwards in every which direction. Within seconds, Envy, Lust, and Gluttony were all hidden behind the screen of very lethal protrusions, but that did nothing to disguise the very distinctive sounds of razor-sharp objects being shoved through flesh.

By the time Annora finally stopped the transmutation, she was almost dead white, and she looked as though she wanted to be violently ill as she sat there limply on the ground, her entire body trembling with a combination of fatigue and fear as she tried desperately to suck air into her lungs. Ed darted forward and managed to catch her right before she collapsed, and tried to put on a brave face as clouded brown eyes looked up at him through a haze of pain.

"I… don't let them hurt anyone else," Annora whispered hoarsely as she struggled not to pass out. For some reason, the transmutation had absolutely drained her. Even though it was an extremely rudimentary one, it shouldn't have zapped her energy the way it had.

While Ed was pondering the strangeness of Annora's reaction to the transmutation, his attention was suddenly drawn back to the multitude of spike that she had created. For no good reason, his skin crawled as he stared at the construct, a scowl making its way across his face as he scrutinized the concrete spikes intently. For some reason, his body was telling him to get the hell out of there, and that he needed to do it now.

The reason behind this particular feeling suddenly made itself known, and the alchemist dropped a series of startled swears as a set of stone gates that he would never forget, even if he lived to be a hundred, appeared directly behind the net of razor-sharp nest of spikes that Annora had made to contain the homunculi. Ed immediately recoiled as he dragged a barely conscious Annora backwards as far as he could until his back slammed up against a bookcase. What was the Gate doing here? Neither one of them had performed a human transmutation, so there was no reason for its appearance.

The heavy stone doors slowly slid open and Ed had a very good look at the multitude of violet eyes that stared out unblinkingly at him before several inky black arms shot out of the Gate's interior and disappeared into the forest of spines. An incredibly foul array of profanities were hurled – probably from Envy, if the voice was anything to go by – before the arms all withdrew, with several of them clutching at two particular figures. Ed got one good look at the expression of absolute terror plastered onto Lust and Gluttony's faces before the Gate slammed shut, with the two homunculi behind it. And then, without further ado, the Gate vanished without a single trace that it had ever been in the high school library.

Ed stared at the spot that the Gate had occupied for several long moments before he indulged in a good, long shudder. That had been close, way too close. He let out a short sigh of relief as he looked down at Annora. The boy cocked an eyebrow when he realized that she had passed out – probably from a combination of blood loss and the blow to the head that she had taken earlier – and pulled Annora closer to him. He would figure out a how he would get her out of the library later; right now, all Ed wanted to do was lean back against the bookcase behind him and rest for a few moments.

A thought abruptly hit the alchemist, and he frowned as he sat up and scrutinized the thick nest of spikes closely. He had only seen Lust and Gluttony being pulled into the Gate, so where was Envy?

He received his answer in the form of a cluster of spikes being kicked forcefully aside by a thoroughly enraged homunculus, with Envy loudly spewing profanities with every jerk of his foot. Ed flinched as he stared at Envy, who looked more than a little pissed off as he directed a far less than sane glare in their direction and hauled himself out of the lethal prison that Annora had created.

"Shit," Ed hissed as he tried to both scoot backwards and find a way to carry Annora without hurting her at once. Envy didn't seem to care about his actions that indicated of escape as he stomped towards the alchemist purposefully, his face warped into a mask of pure homicidal rage.

"Hand over the girl, pipsqueak, and I won't kill you with her," the homunculus snarled threateningly as he drew closer. Ed opened his mouth to offer a scathing retort to the 'pipsqueak' comment, only to be cut off by the sound of one of the heavy library doors slamming open.

"No one's handing anyone over!" a familiar male voice spat out tersely, the statement accompanied by the very distinct sound of a rifle being cocked. "Now step away the hell from my sister, you faggot!"

"How very eloquent, Private. Why don't you just waltz right in front of him with a target painted on your back while you're at it? You already went and blew the element of surprise straight to hell with your idiocy."

"Why don't you put a sock in it, sir?"

"Didn't they teach you how to obey orders in Basic, boy?"

"Nah, they just taught us how to annoy the ever-loving hell out of arrogant bastards like you."

"That's called insubordination, Thomas. You would do well to remember it. Now address your commanding officers with respect."

"I will, once you pull your manners out of the sewer."

Ed fought the urge to groan as he realized from the voices that not only had Ethan arrived, but he had also brought Mustang along for the ride. The alchemist immediately scooted back out of sight behind another series of bookshelves – well out of Envy's line of sight – before he allowed the back of his head to collide once with the bookshelf as he looked imploringly up at the off-white ceiling tiles, and silently cursed whoever thought that it was so much fun to screw with his life. What had Annora called them once? Oh yeah, irony gods. As she had so eloquently put it at the time, 'they're the sick, twisted little bastards who have nothing better to do than sit around and get their kicks by screwing around with the lives of us lucky few'.

The sounds of battle erupted behind him, consisting of gunfire, swearing, and fingers snapping with eerie precision. The impromptu fight lasted only a few minutes before there was a round of incredibly vile curses from somewhere on Envy's end, and Ed was treated to the very interesting sight of the homunculus turning into something large and scaly before he fled out into the school hallway. Ed cocked an eyebrow slightly as he contemplated the homunculi's abrupt exit, only to be distracted by the sound of someone walking towards him.

"You know, I would just love to see the cops try and explain this one," Ethan drawled as he leaned up against the bookcase that Ed had been hiding behind. However, his relaxed position almost instantly vanished when he took in Annora's limp form and immediately dropped down to his knees by his sister.

"She's okay, I think," Ed told him as he tried to shift the unconscious girl into a more comfortable position. "She just passed out."

Ethan gave the alchemist a skeptical look as he reached out and gently pressed two fingers against Annora's throat to make sure that she had a pulse. Once the soldier found what he was looking for, he let out a sigh of relief and let his hand drop slightly.

"She's still alive," he breathed out slowly, letting out a short laugh as he rocked back onto the heels of his feet and ran a hand over his cropped hair. Mustang, who had just come up behind the younger man, gave a disbelieving snort as he quickly and expertly scrutinized the injuries that Annora had accumulated – the majority of them from her trip through the window at the other end of the library.

"I would have pity for the residents of Hell if she had actually died," the Colonel drawled as he too crouched down by the limp girl before he gave Edward a stern look. "So Fullmetal, care to explain just where exactly we are?"

Ed looked startled for a moment before he grinned sarcastically at his commanding officer, a somewhat stressed glint appearing in his eyes.

"I don't know," he retorted pithily before he gave Ethan a wide grin that was downright evil. "Why don't you ask Private Thomas, Colonel? I'm sure that he knows, seeing as Annora's his sister."

Ethan scowled at Ed before he returned his attention back to Annora, prodding carefully at her arms and ribs as he checked to make sure that a concussion was the worst thing that his sister had.

"That's like asking your brother if he knows the reason why you're so damn short," he muttered darkly under his breath as he pressed his fingers against Annora's wrist to check her pulse again. Unfortunately for Ethan, the people at Central command had not been exaggerating when they had told him of the Fullmetal Alchemist's legendary temper. And they also had not been embellishing the truth when they had mentioned his pretty much non-existent patience whenever he was referred to in any way with a word that could possibly mean 'short'.

"WHO DID YOU SAY WAS AN ULTRA-SHORT KID?!" Ed roared as he tried to lunge for the older soldier, only to be restrained by Mustang.

"Fullmetal, would it kill you to actually act your age, for once?" the man growled out irritably. Ed scowled at him before he flipped his commanding officer the bird.

"Only if you act yours," he growled back.

All three of the males proceeded to glare at each other darkly, making the very air around them vibrate with tension.

(Dividing Line is supposed to be here)

"She's okay, I think," Ed told him as he tried to shift the unconscious girl into a more comfortable position. "She just passed out."

Ethan gave the alchemist a skeptical look as he reached out and gently pressed two fingers against Annora's throat to make sure that she had a pulse. Once the soldier found what he was looking for, he let out a sigh of relief and let his hand drop slightly.

"She's still alive," he breathed out slowly, letting out a short laugh as he rocked back onto the heels of his feet and ran a hand over his cropped hair. Mustang, who had just come up behind the younger man, gave a disbelieving snort as he quickly and expertly scrutinized the injuries that Annora had accumulated – the majority of them from her trip through the window at the other end of the library.

"I would have pity for the residents of Hell if she had actually died," the Colonel drawled as he too crouched down by the limp girl before he gave Edward a stern look. "So Fullmetal, care to explain just where exactly we are?"

Ed looked startled for a moment before he grinned sarcastically at his commanding officer, a somewhat stressed glint appearing in his eyes.

"I don't know," he retorted pithily before he gave Ethan a wide grin that was downright evil. "Why don't you ask Private Thomas, Colonel? I'm sure that he knows, seeing as Annora's his sister."

Ethan scowled at Ed before he returned his attention back to Annora, prodding carefully at her arms and ribs as he checked to make sure that a concussion was the worst thing that his sister had.

"That's like asking your brother if he knows the reason why you're so damn short," he muttered darkly under his breath as he pressed his fingers against Annora's wrist to check her pulse again. Unfortunately for Ethan, the people at Central command had not been exaggerating when they had told him of the Fullmetal Alchemist's legendary temper. And they also had not been embellishing the truth when they had mentioned his pretty much non-existent patience whenever he was referred to in any way with a word that could possibly mean 'short'.

"WHO DID YOU SAY WAS AN ULTRA-SHORT KID?!" Ed roared as he tried to lunge for the older soldier, only to be restrained by Mustang.

"Fullmetal, would it kill you to actually act your age, for once?" the man growled out irritably. Ed scowled at him before he flipped his commanding officer the bird.

"Only if you act yours," he growled back.

All three of the males proceeded to glare at each other darkly, making the very air around them vibrate with tension.

Annora watched the scene unfolding before her with interest, wincing slightly as her head throbbed unexpectedly. It was weird. She was standing in some kind of dark void again, only it wasn't half as scary as when the Gate had been in her dream.

If she wanted to be more precise, it was like she was standing in a large, dark room with a movie screen in front of her. On the screen was a rather grainy-looking movie of Ed, Mustang, and Ethan all arguing over her limp form while in her school library. The sound kept fading in and out, kind of like a bad recording. She winced slightly as Ed's voice rose to a distinctly uncomfortable pitch as he shouted at Mustang for some reason before it cut out completely.

The silence was deafening as she watched the three males continue their argument, her skin prickling uncomfortably as she realized that she was probably the only living thing in the room. It was definitely a somewhat disturbing idea.

"You can't stay here, you know."

The girl jerked at the strange voice before she turned around to face the speaker, hesitating when she realized that it was Ethan standing there while in his American army uniform.

"What are you doing here?" she asked before she gestured at the room. "And where is here exactly?"

Ethan cocked an eyebrow before he raised his hands up in the air as a way of indicating that he had nothing to do with what was going on.

"Hey, that's your call, not mine," Ethan said simply before he strode over to where she was standing, his military-issue tan boots thumping against the dark floor as he stopped and looked at the images on the screen speculatively. "I'm just a fragment of your psyche. You're the one in control here. You wanted something familiar here, someone to give you advice, so here I am."

"O-kay, that made absolutely no sense," Annora said flatly as she crossed her arms over her chest and gave her brother an annoyed look. "Could you be any more vague with that?"

The man gave her a sidelong glance before he shrugged noncommittally and returned his attention to the movie screen. Annora let out an irritated sigh as she rolled her eyes upwards before she shook her head. Ethan had always been annoying when he knew something that she didn't but usually he'd cave and tell her what was going on before she threatened to thump him. Obviously, this was going to be one of those rare cases where he flat-out refused to tell her anything.

The teen waited for several moments for her brother to say something, only to slowly become more and more anxious. Whatever was going on, it was really starting to creep her out. Ethan was never this quiet when he was withholding information.

"Ethan, what's going on?" she finally asked softly. The soldier looked over at her, and Annora was shocked by the solemn look on his face before he reached up and nervously ran a callused hand over his sandy cropped hair.

"Annora, you need to wake up," he said seriously. "If you don't do it soon, you probably never will."

"Huh?"

At her confused reaction, Ethan finally lost his temper as he suddenly reached out and seized Annora by her shoulders and shook her firmly, his hazel eyes wide in panic.

"Listen to me!" he snapped urgently. "You need to wake up, now! If you don't, you'll die! Do you really want to put Mom and Dad through all of that grief just because you won't wake your stubborn ass up?!"

The girl let out a startled yelp as she stared at her brother wide-eyed before she reacted almost automatically: she reached out and punched the man right in the nose.

"Son of a bitch!"

Blood streamed from Ethan's nose as he released her suddenly, and Annora stumbled backwards as she attempted to get away from her brother, who had apparently lost his mind. Reaching up, she wiped at something wet and thick that had splattered across her face before she brought her hand down to see what it was. Thick tracks of crimson streaked across her hand, and Annora flinched as she realized that she had probably broken Ethan's nose.

Before either one of them could say anything, the dark room suddenly exploded with a cacophony of sounds.

"Ethan Alexander Thomas, what are you doing?!"

"Sir, if you can't control yourself, I'm afraid that we'll have to ask you to leave the room."

"She's not brain dead, not yet! She just punched me in the nose; that's got to count for something!"

Annora cursed softly as she spun around, trying to locate the source of the voices flooding the room, as well as the other sounds. What was going on? It sounded like an ER or something.

"Sir, this girl hasn't had any brain activity in several hours. I'm afraid that there's no plausible way for her to actually be alive."

"Bullshit!"

"Ethan, stop it!"

For some reason, Ethan looked unusually pleased with himself as he crossed his arms over his chest, ignoring the blood streaming from his nose as he smirked at the darkened recesses of the room.

"We did it," he remarked with a bloody grin before he looked over at Annora. The girl frowned as she realized that everything in front of her was fading. If this wasn't creepy, then she didn't know what was.

"Ethan?" she asked hesitantly. He only grinned at her before he nodded encouragingly.

"It's okay. You can go now," he said reassuringly as he gave her a thumbs-up. "Everything's gonna be alright now."

Annora tried to reach out to grab her brother, to try and demand an answer as to what was going on, only to stumble as soon as she took a step. For some reason, all of her strength seemed to have vanished, and a wave of nausea hit her as she looked at Ethan with wide eyes. What was happening to her?

The next thing she knew, she felt like she was falling.

CRASH!

"Don't you dare touch her, you bastards!"

"Somebody get security! We need to get him out of here before he hurts someone!"

"Ethan, knock it off!"

"I'm not leaving my sister! Now let me go!"

Annora let out a low groan as she slowly became aware of the chaos surrounding her, and winced as she heard her brother start roaring out a set of truly vile profanities. Apparently someone had really made him mad. The last time something had set him off this badly, it had been when he had caught one of the football players trying to stuff her into a trash can. The girl swallowed, and then winced as her throat screamed in protest.

Her throat felt like sandpaper, and her mouth tasted absolutely disgusting. Actually, to be honest, her mouth tasted like something had gone and committed suicide in it before being left to ferment for a month.

Suddenly, the chaos around her stepped up a notch, and Annora mentally cringed when she heard the voice of her cousin yelling at her brother to behave. Why was Kit here? Shouldn't she be in Portland?

"Ethan," she finally croaked out, and then flinched as her throat protested vehemently against the action. "Chill."

You could have heard a pin drop in the silence that descended after her statement.

Before Annora could wonder at just what in the hell was going on, a pair of strong arms suddenly wrapped themselves around her and lifted her up into a sitting position. One of the people in the room protested at the person's actions, but a low growl from the person holding her effectively cut of any protests.

"Annora?" Ethan suddenly asked softly, and Annora realized with a start that he was the one holding her. "Hey kiddo, can you hear me?"

The girl managed to force out a soft noise of ascent in response, wondering why her brother sounded frightened of whatever response she would make. Something was wrong with her. She couldn't think straight, and her entire mind felt like it was fogged up. Ethan tensed up slightly at the noise before he shifted in his spot.

"Somebody get me a glass of water or something," he demanded as he turned to look at whoever was standing closest to them. Annora frowned as she listened to someone run out of the room before she understood just what was wrong with this picture. She hadn't opened her eyes yet. She had been lying down on some kind of soft surface – probably a mattress or something – and she hadn't opened her eyes yet.

Annora immediately forced her eyes open – and couldn't prevent the strangled yelp that emerged from her throat as nothing but darkness greeted her.

"Ethan, I-" she stammered as tears welled up in her eyes, her throat closing up as a wave of terror washed over her. "I can't see!"

The man cursed softly before a set of callused fingertips brushed up against the side of her face.

"Here, hold still for a second," he told her gently. "I think I can fix that for you. If you can't see after I remove the bandages though, then we're in trouble."

Bandages? Why on earth would she have bandages over her eyes? Just what was going on? Nothing was making any sense to her.

Annora sat stiffly in her spot as her brother lightly held her while he slowly unwrapped the bandages over her eyes, muttering a steady stream of nonsensical words in an attempt to comfort the terrified girl. The second that she felt the last strip of fabric fell away from her face Annora forced her eyes open, only to yelp and instinctively slam them shut as blinding white light seared her retinas.

"Bright," she muttered, sounding like a five-year-old as she turned her face away from the source of the light. Ethan muttered something that he had probably learned from his drill sergeant under his breath before he picked his sister up and settled her down on his lap, allowing her head to rest against his chest. Annora relaxed visibly as she listened to the steady thump of her brother's heart, feeling for all the world like a little kid.

She felt so weak, almost like someone had drained away all of her strength. What was wrong with her?

The girl frowned slightly as a nagging hint of a memory came to her, and she remembered a deranged fanged grin, accompanied by an androgynous, mocking voice and insane violet eyes.

"Aw, what's wrong? Can't the little bitch keep the promises that she makes? After all, I thought you said that would kick my ass. What is that belief that you stupid humans have? Oh yes, Equivalent Exchange. So tell me, girl, do you think that Equivalent Exchange will save you now?"

Whoever the person was, they knew her. Were they the reason why she couldn't even sit up without help? The voice was important, of that much she was certain.

A series of pained grunts, followed by an irritated female voice growling out death threats, broke Annora's already scattered concentration, and the thought slipped away just as quickly as it had come. Before she could say anything, the rim of a cup was lightly pressed up against her lips, and the teen immediately started to gulp down the cool water inside. She was so thirsty.

"Hey, cool it there," Ethan admonished softly as he tilted the cup back slightly so that she could only take small sips. "It's not going anywhere, so just take little sips. I really don't want you to be sick."

Annora complied with her brother's request as she took several long sips of the coveted water before she leaned back against Ethan's chest with a soft sigh. That little action had completely wiped her out. The cup was removed, and a hand slowly started stroking her hair in what was supposed to be a comforting gesture. Finally, once she thought that her eyes had recovered adequately from being blinded earlier, Annora slowly allowed her eyes to slide open.

She was in a dim hospital room, with the door being blocked by a very scowly-looking Kit, who occasionally looked over her shoulder to glare at the orderlies that were currently trying to crowd their way in. Her cousin did not look like a happy camper, although she did spare the time to flash Annora a reassuring smile when she saw the younger girl looking at her curiously. The girl frowned before she allowed her head to fall back against Ethan's chest, where he resumed running his fingers through her hair.

"Ethan, what's going on?" she finally asked. Her brother froze before he twisted around so that he could look her in the eyes, a look of abject concern on his face.

"Don't you remember?"

Annora shook her head in response, and the expression on Ethan's face darkened considerably. He scowled at nothing in particular before he shook his head and sighed.

"Do you remember how you always ride the bus home from school every day?" he asked quietly. Annora shrugged slightly before she nodded, and Ethan let out an exhausted groan in response. "Annora, three months ago your bus was in a serious accident. A semi truck crashed into the side and flipped the entire bus into a drainage ditch. You've been in a coma ever since then."

(Divinging line is supposed to be here)

(Wandering Hitokiri swallows nervously and grins sheepishly at the mass of readers before she runs and hides in a bunker. A large sign with red lettering is left out in plain sight with a single word on it.)

Sorry!

I know that I pretty much fell off the face of the earth and died, and now I come and gift you guys with this evil chapter, but I had to do it. I really want to finish this story, but the plot just went and died on me. This is the last official chapter, but there will be an epilogue.

Please don't kill me?