Who went to Boston to see The Sacred Star of Milos on Friday? This girl! (and her friends, abitofslytherin and forevergreybacksenemy)

It was amazing. The atmosphere was something that I've never really experienced before. There was cheering whenever characters entered. At one point in time, everyone's yelling 'No! No, don't do it!' except for the one woman in the back, who yelled 'Go for it!' over everyone else. Everyone was kibitzing, and nobody seemed to care, except for the one guy in the back who yelled 'SHUT UP!' before realizing it was futile. There were people in cosplay, (even a duct tape Alphonse!) and nearly the entire auditorium was full!

Add that to a crazy, crazy, CRAZY plot, and *spoiler alert* a Mary-Sue, it created an experience that was just awesome.

And I also had a spontaneous cosplay of Edward after school that day . . . ht tp:/ the-turtle-alchemist . deviantart . com /#/ d4n52a9

So all in all, Friday was awesome. My friend and I also spent band class determining which Hetalia country our band director was acting like at different times. Germany, Italy, and America were the ones that came up that day.

But onto the story, which I'm sure you've been waiting for.

-o-O-o-

19 February, 1917

That next morning, they began the sub-freezing (possibly sub-zero) trek to the Northern Mountain Fortress of Briggs. It wasn't a trip that any of them particularly wanted to make- especially since they had been cold enough just waking up that morning.

The Elrics had had it a bit better off than Karmyn had. Even with the number of blankets she had piled upon herself, she had woken up extremely early due to large shivers running through her body. After trying and failing to bury herself deeper into the covers to warm herself up, she gave up. With shivers still wracking violently throughout her body, she swung her legs out of bed. Hugging herself in order to stay marginally warmer, she winced as her socked feet hit the extremely cold floor.

Did someone forget to turn the heat up this morning? She asked herself wryly. Finding her jacket, she slid it on, reaching into the pocket for her iPod. She moved to check the time, but then stopped. She remembered that the device hadn't adjusted to time on this side of the Gate, so the clocks ran extremely fast. The numbers flashed by within seconds, betraying just how fast time was travelling on the other side.

Karmyn sighed, shivered, and looked over to where the boys were sleeping. She couldn't help but smile. The two of them were sprawled out on top of one another, completely unaware of their surroundings. Looking down at her iPod, the smile quickly changed to a smirk. Her iPod was the second latest generation, not the mini one, but the one with the camera built into it. Over the past couple months, she had been trying to build an electronic photo album of people and places. Opening the camera, she quickly snapped a picture of the two teens, saving it to the device's memory.

Already in her album she had some pictures of Al and Winry, and even a couple of Ed. She had gotten a few of some scenery from inside a train, and a couple of her father. All in all, she didn't have all that many. However, the pictures that she still had stored from her 'past life' made up for that. She had pictures of Katherine, in all of her dark-haired glory. One was even taken from an anime con that Karmyn had dragged her to, where Karmyn was dressed as Maka Albarn from Soul Eater, and Katherine had dressed up as a witch from Ravenclaw.

She also had pictures of her mother and of random things from around her room. Somewhere among the compiled list, there was a picture of Willard and Alfred Cirle, from when they were working on their chem project together. Finally, way, way back in the history, were a couple pictures from when she had been doing parkour. She never looked at those ones anymore- they tended to hurt too much.

At last, the older teen couldn't stand the temperature any more. Making her way over to the woodstove that was a common fixture in each room of the inn, she began to fill it with the provided wood. After setting it alight, it was a few minutes before she could begin to feel the warmth emanating from it. She let it wash over her, sighing with relief.

After deciding that there was no point of just sitting around, she began to get dressed. Aware of the temperatures that they would be dealing with that day, she often double-layered (ex: wearing two shirts). Seeing that the two boys were still asleep, she began to pick up her stuff, packing her travel case. As much as she wanted to keep it with her, her metal staff was included in the things she packed in the case. She knew that metal things were dangerous in the cold.

The boys were still sleeping. Karmyn was beginning to wonder about Al's 'insomnia.' Surely a person with insomnia didn't sleep this well . . . ? She let it go. The girl would let them sleep for a little while longer before awakening them to the harsh cold of reality.

To pass the time, she removed her lovely leather-bound journal from her case and opened it, beginning to write. Something had been bugging her for the past few days, and she felt that she needed to record it onto paper. Still, her suspicions become known to anyone else. If she was right, or even if she was wrong, it would be a bad thing.

She thought long and hard about how she could code her writing. She knew that Ed wrote his in a travelogue, and Mustang did his in women's names, but she wasn't exactly sure how that worked. She needed another way. . .

And she had one.

Realizing this, she began to write.

It was a series of events that was making her uneasy, she realized. She had begun to notice things about people that no one else did. More specifically, their presence. Edward had a much stronger presence than most people, and Al's was pretty high as well. However, there were some people that Karmyn had passed by who seemed like they were barely there. She had no explanation for this (A/N- but the author does! Don't think this as Mary-Sue!), but she just noticed. The thing that was worrying her was the woman that she had run into multiple times.

The woman had a presence that she had seen in one other person only. It was as if there was a presence, and then a leech- a smaller presence that was clinging to the presence of the person. It made her feel quite uncomfortable- although much less uncomfortable than the other person with that presence had.

She had a sneaking suspicion, but she wasn't about to make it public. Not even to Ed and Al.

She finished her last character, closing her book. Shortly after, she shoved it to the bottom of her travel case. She didn't want anybody reading it.

For her next trick, Karmyn would wake the boys up.

-o-O-o-

It proved to be way more amusing than she thought it would be.

First off, she decided to wake Al. She had a feeling that it would take longer for Ed to wake up. After Alphonse was awake, they both set to the task of waking the eighteen-year-old.

Simply, they just pulled the blankets off him.

After a couple of angry words and some smart-aleck responses, he was up.

Twenty minutes later, they had left the inn and were back out in the frigid weather.

"I assume that Winry fitted you with cold-weather automail?" Karmyn raised her voice over the howling of the wind as they began their long trek to Briggs Fortress.

"Yep," came the response from the older boy, "I sure didn't want to have to go through that ordeal again!"

"It's colder than I remember!" the third member of the group said as a whoosh of wind went right through them.

"Alphonse," Karmyn yelled back, "you couldn't feel the last time you were here! How could you know?"

"I can just tell," was the simple response.

"Well, I guess I can say that my childhood dream came true," Karmyn said with a small smile on her face, "I finally came to Antarctica. The only things I don't see are the penguins!"

That brought a laugh from both of the boys.

For the next hour or so, they tried to keep the playful bantering up in order to distract them from the chill. The worst part came when the daily blizzard started. The snow fell so thickly that they couldn't even see a foot in front of them. Worried that they might lose each other, the girl quickly grabbed one of each of the boys' wrists. Linked together in a human chain, they continued to walk in the direction of the fortress.

Karmyn was slightly off-set by the pure whiteness that stretched in front of them. "Greaat," she moaned sarcastically. "I'm letting both of you know now that if I see any sign of a little white guy and large double doors, I am out of here."

Edward snorted.

Al laughed.

A whitened figure appeared in front of them.

In the distance, they began to make out large grey double doors.

Everyone immediately stopped laughing.

The coincidence was just freaky.

It took a couple minutes, but at last they could finally identify the figure that stood in front of them as Major Miles (now a colonel). "Halt!" he cried, "who goes there?" (A/N- Sorry. I had to.)

"Edward and Alphonse Elric, and Karmyn Dallas!" Ed yelled back, "General Armstrong should be expecting us!"

"I haven't heard anything about it," Miles conceded, "but that doesn't mean that she isn't. Follow me," he told them.

A few minutes later, they found themselves encased in the steadfast fortress of Briggs. The large metal door clanged shut behind them.

"Stay here," Miles instructed, "I'll find the General."

Karmyn took this time to look around at her surroundings. It was really quite impressive, even more so than it had been in the anime. She shuffled back and forth between her feet. She didn't really feel like she belonged here- she wondered if she should have stayed back with Izumi.

She shivered- the girl still hadn't recovered from the icy cold outside. Wrapping her coat tighter around herself, she blew onto her hands to warm them up.

At last, the three companions heard the footsteps of the female General approaching. Immediately, they all (including Karmyn) straightened, hoping to appear (somewhat) orderly.

"Edward, Alphonse," the General barked, "to what do I owe this visit?" The blonde-haired woman looked at them sharply.

"You weren't expecting us?" Al asked, somewhat confused.

"Not for another few weeks."

Karmyn could feel an uneasy sensation rising in her gut. Something wasn't right here. If the General wasn't expecting them, then . . .

"Who was?" Edward had asked the exact question that the girl had been thinking.

She didn't know, and it looked like everyone else was stumped as well. Even the General had a contemplating look in her blue eyes.

"Tell me everything," the General ordered, "Miles will show you to your quarters, where you can place your belongings. Then report to my office immediately."

They did as they were told, but for a fleeting second, Karmyn felt the double presence that she had begun to grow wary about.

Only time would tell.

-o-O-o-

We're starting to get to where the dung hits the fan. Some major stuff is about to go down, and none of it good.

As an update on manga progress, I have not been able to draw anymore, even though I have scenes planned out in my head, and I've done some concept art on pieces of scrap paper at school. Soo . . . It will probably take much longer than after I've gotten 400 reviews, considering I already have like, 381 or something. Maybe I should boost the number to 450 or 500 . . .

Anyhow. I hope you enjoy the chapter, and stick with me throughout the major plot points of this story. The rest of this story has basically been exposition. Here's where we get to the rising action.

I picked up my Skip Beat! story again, after eight months. I decided to rewrite it, as I had begun it before I started this, and honestly, it sucked. So now I have two stories to work on, so I may not be updating this one as often anymore . . .

But I'm not giving up on it! I love this story waaay too much to give it up!

Sayonara!