Chapter Two: Threats of Cold Steel

(part one)

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Disclaimer: No, I still don't own FMA. You don't know how much I wish I did though. le sigh Alina is my character, as well as my name…rather…my alias.

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Author's Note and Warning: Ok, because the last chapter was so sad that I ended up crying when I read it through the first time after writing it, I made this part of the story insane and in some ways funny. At least…Erin thought it was funny. I hope you do too. I wrote it because it made me feel better. Also, I rewrote the draft of this chapter while watching Azu Manga Daioh, so that also might've helped with the crazy factor.

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To my reviewers: Thank you so much for reviewing my story. It means a lot to me because I'm still kind of new to the whole writing fan fictions thingy.

Brigadier Erin Lightning: My god, you are insane. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Lol… Thanks for your support this year Erin. It really meant a lot to me, and still does. Yes Hughes and Havoc are yours. AND TAKE ENVY! HE'S ANNOYING THE HELL OUT OF ME!

Karyl: Wow………I actually made her teary eyed. bows to the heavens above I'll get the rest of this story up as soon as possible, Kairi but it won't be finished for a while. I hope to make this story kinda long. Hopefully interesting to all of my friends and reviewers. Don't kill me? Pleazse? Oh…Kairi….I got a new anime DVD. It's called Azu Manga Daioh. It's sooooooooo stupid. You HAVE to watch it when you get back. It's incredibly odd and insane. Like you. Lol…IT'S ERIN'S FAULT! I never would have even known about this anime if she hadn't ever mentioned it! Kidding….(not really….) lol…

Maruken: Hey, thanks for reviewing my story. Yeah, I know people don't usually like reading OCs but I thank you for reading mine and giving it a chance. Alina will hopefully never become a Mary Sue. I strive for individuality and, actually, I have planned that none of the characters get together, except maybe for Roy and Riza. That's what I have planned anyways. My characters usually like to have minds of their own. Whatever….but I'll let you know if someone is going to fall in love or whatever. In my opinion, Alina probably works a lot better alone.

The original plan was to have Envy….'torture' her….but I changed that into a fight scene. I liked the fight better then the original scene. It fit the mood better. Though, in the middle of this chapter, Envy will torment Alina to get what he wants but it doesn't really mean anything is going on between them so don't take it that way, ok?

Angelbott: Yeah, I love Envy too! He's so cool! Keep reading, ok?

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Anyways, here's for all you guys who are brave enough to actually read this.

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Part One:

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"Ohhh…owww…" A groan escaped her throat. Alina whimpered as her brain dully acknowledged an aching pain that came from all over her body. The fingers of her right hand twitched and she groaned again.

With dim realization, Alina saw that she was still alive. Suddenly, everything came rushing back to her. The argument with her sister, running away, walking home in the rain, and most of all, the blood. There had been so much of it. It had been something like a scene out of those books she loved reading. Hell if she'd read them anymore.

A face flashed before her mind's eye. Black hair, amethyst hued eyes, and that god awful smirk.

"She'll pay. God, I will make her pay." She whispered, her eyes still closed.

"So….You're finally awake then. Good, you survived."

Her eyes snapped open and she stared up at a smirking face framed by palm tree locks. Her eyes widened in panic and she whimpered, remembering the last thing she had heard from his mouth before passing out.

Envy grinned, satisfied with her reaction. "Don't worry, Clipped Wings. I haven't fucked you… yet." He laughed.

Alina's eyes narrowed and she slammed her elbow into his stomach. Either she had done it due to bitchy attitude or just plain reflexes, she didn't know, but somehow she knew that movement really shouldn't be possible for her. At least, not with the injuries she had acquired. That and she never really had taken to someone mocking her. It pissed her off. Which reminded her. Drawing on this new found ability of movement, she reached out and grabbed a handful of Envy's hair and yanked his head to where she could meet his gaze without having to strain herself by moving too much.

"Spill it, palm tree boy," She snarled, "Why the hell am I still alive?"

Before he could answer though, the door was flung open and a girl a bit younger than Alina stormed in, yelling at the top of her lungs, brandishing (of all things to brandish) a large, silver wrench.

"I told you to stay out! Stay out! Do you know what that means! It means don't come in! Now get out you little green haired freak, and stay out! Get out! Out, out, out! Out now!"

Alina hastily released Envy and tried to hide from the scary blonde chic with the wrench. Unfortuneately, her trying to hide resulted in Alina falling off the bed, and onto, where else, but the floor. She yelped in pain as she hit the wooden floorboards.

"Owwww….Why do floors have to be so hard? Damn…" She whimpered as she grasped the sheets of the bed and tried to stand up by pulling herself to her feet. Sadly, her legs were not yet fully functional. 'What the hell is going on? Am I in some whacked out dream? No….can't be. That fall hurt like hell.'

Two hands gripped her sides and lifted her to her feet.

Now standing, she leaned on the bed. "Thanks."

Smirking, Envy replied, "No problem."

Blinking, Alina realized who had helped her and stumbled (or tried to anyways) away from Envy as quick as she could. This consisted of a yelp, tripping over her own feet which didn't really seem to work, and landing on the floor yet again. "Augh! Get off-get off-get off! Ewwww ewewewew. He touched me. He touched me!"

Envy snickered and sauntered out the door, as he had been told to.

"Hey, calm down…excuse me. Please… come on, calm down…" The girl sighed. "HEY!"

Alina looked at the blonde for a minute. "Do you have to yell?" She asked.

"Oh, you were only spazzing out because that freak touched you, so yeah. I had to yell. Now get in the stupid bed and le on your stomach."

"Uhhhh…I don't swing that way, sorry. Oh. Oh, ok…hehe." Alina glanced down her legs to her feet. Frowning, she crawled toward the bed, not wanting to fall again. Reaching the bed, Alina stood up, though with much work and labor, and, with the blonde chick's help, clambered up onto the bed.

"Now, lie on your stomach."

Alina did as she was told and lay down. "So….what happened?" She inquired, turning her head to look at Winry. "Why am I still alive?"

"That friend of yours-"

"He's not my friend." Alina said flatly.

"Oh, well, he says he is."

"He's not."

"Well anyways, he brought you here in the middle of that huge storm last week and-"

"Last week? Have I been asleep that long?"

"No, you've been unconscious that long. It was only yesterday that you showed signs of life. Even Aunt Pinako thought you were going to die. Before yesterday, I mean. You hadn't eaten a thing at all. We had to force water down your throat. But when he first brought you here, you were both covered in blood. He told us what was wrong and asked us to help. Obviously, we agreed to, since your still alive. We couldn't exactly let you die."

"What did you do? And where is 'here'? Who are you?" Alina's mind as going at mach 500, too quick for her to quiet her own questions.

"You mean you don't know? Well, I guess that makes sense. You're at Rockbell Automailer. I'm Winry Rockbell."

"Auto…mail? Is that…?"

"Is that why you're able to move?"

Alina nodded.

Winry looked towards the window. "Yes. Aunt Pinako and I replaced your spine and pretty much your whole back with automail. We had to do it quickly, because you were bleeding so much. When we got finished, the nerves still weren't attached to your spine so I've been coming in each day to reattach them. You never so much as flinched. It was kind of scary." Winry shuddered.

"What do you mean, 'scary'?"

"The fact that I might've been working on a dead person. It was hard not to think about it. But I still had hope that you were alive because you were still a bit warm."

Alina nodded "So, then, Winry. What are you reattaching today?"

Winry smiled. "Your leg nerves. The rest of them. After today, you'll have full movement for your whole body. A good job, if I do say so myself. You'll also have much quicker reaction times and you'll be quite a bit stronger. Though, it's going to hurt for a while after we finish."

"Huh, ok." She shifted and looked out the window. "I'm ready when you are."

Winry blinked, and looked at her, confused. Then it dawned on her. "Oh! Ok, hold on. I'll go get Gran. Be right back." She left the room.

Alina sighed and stared at the grassy field outside. So far, Winry hadn't asked what happened. Had Envy already told her? Probably. And why had he saved her life? He worked with Lust. What reason did he have to keep her alive?

The door opened again but Alina kept staring out the window.

"Hey, are you ready?" Winry's voice.

"I said I was, didn't I? Why would that change?"

"Yeah, umm…."

"Winry, close the curtains." An old lady's voice. Alina wanted to see who it was but she was too tired to let her curiosity rule her over.

"Yes ma'am." As Winry did so, a short old lady came to stand in front of Alina, who was currently falling asleep. The old lady rapped her knuckles on Alina's skull. "Wake up."

Alina opened one eye and quirked an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because we need to get your shirt off. Which means you need to sit up so we can do so."

"Oh." Alina complied to the old lady's request and sat up, wincing slightly.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem with the automail? There better not be. I worked hard on that set!" Winry said, talking quickly.

"Chill, Winry. It's my head. It just hurts a little, that's all." Alina turned her two toned gaze to the old hag. "Who're you?"

"I should be asking you that, girl. I'm Pinako. What about you? We know your spine got ripped out. We don't know why, but it doesn't really matter. Unless you did human transmutation." Pinako watched Alina's expression carefully.

Alina lowered her gaze.

"So you did." Her expression hardened.

"No, I didn't. I was going to but I couldn't. I'd rather not talk about what happened, though." Her voice started to crack.

"Fine. What's your name, young lady?"

"Alina. Alina BlackWing. Pleasure to meet you."

"Jacin BlackWing's daughter?"

"Yes. Did you know my father?" Alina brought her gaze up to look at Pinako.

"No, I've heard of him though. He was a State Alchemist?"

When Alina nodded, Pinako's expression became grim. "So it was him. The 'Death Alchemist'?"

"Yes, that was his title."

"Hmm… many wonder why he got that title, Miss Alina. Do you know why?"

Alina shifted her gaze and shook her head. "No…..He never…he never told me."

Pinako looked at her suspiciously. "Humph. Well, the talk of him when the Military Dogs came through a few years ago was hushed and secretive. But that's besides the point. Let's get on with fixing this automail. Off with the shirt."

Winry helped Alina take her shirt off then to lie back down. "It's going to hurt so scream as much as you need to, ok? Ok? Alina?"

A mumbled answer was said into the pillow.

"What?"

Alina picked her head up. "I said, 'whatever, fine, I will.'." She dropped her head back into the pillow.

Winry nodded and went to work unscrewing the lower portion of the automail back.

Pinako stood over her, watching and supervising.

Finally, Winry removed the last screw and lifted the heavy metal plate off. She handed it to Pinako and immediately started working on finding each unattached wire and reattaching one, carefully checking and rechecking that they were in the right place. During all of this, Alina screamed, whimpered, grunted, and cursed…excessively.

"Shiiit. Fucking hell. God damni- AUGH!" Her body convulsed violently.

"Hang in there, Alina. We're almost done. Almost done." All Winry got for an answer was another stream of curses.

"Don't lie, Winry." Pinako scolded.

"I was only trying to make her feel better."

"Don't lie."

"But, Gran, wouldn't you want—"

"I said don't lie."

Winry hung her head. "Yes ma'am."

Winry frowned and looked at the wire in her hand. Scratching her shoulder with the wrench, she looked for a single wire. "Ummm…This might be a problem...uh-oh…"

"I'm going to try and pretend that I didn't hear that, Winry. Unfortunately, it's not going to work…..Why did you just say 'Uh-oh,' Winry?"

"Nothing! No reason! Nothing happened! I swear it! There is no extra wire that needs a home!"

"Tell me you did not just say that."

"Uhhh…no! No I didn't! I-"

"Everything ok in here?": The door opened and Envy poked his head in.

"Stay out! Are you deaf!" Winry yelled and threw her wrench at him.

The door snapped shut as Envy' head disappeared. The wrench hit the door with such force that the wood cracked.

Pinako sighed. "Winry, how many times have I told you t to throw things in the house?"

"Sorry Gran. I won't do it again."

Envy came back in and looked down at the wrench. He considered it for a moment then bent and picked it up, and after doing that, walked over to them. Something glittered in his other hand.

"About the wire, Alina. I don't know what you want me to do about it. I mean, I could undo all the wires then do them again. It would hurt, though. Or I could-"

"Why don't you snip it off with a pair of scissors?" Envy questioned, peering over Winry's shoulder.

Winry shrugged but looked thoughtful.

"No." Alina answered quickly.

"It would only" "No" "hurt for a second, Alina." "No. Absolutely not. Not even."

"But it would solve everyone's problems." Envy said.

"Not mine!"

"Okay. It would solve everyone else's problems."

"Exactly. So no, no, no."

Winry listened to Envy and Alina argue, not saying anything. As she tried to snatch her wrench away from Envy, she put her thoughts into the argument. "Alina, it would be easier to just cut it off."

"But it's going to hurt!"

"Yeah, so?" Envy said, moving the wrench out of Winry's grasp.

"Can you not see that I'm already in enough pain?"

Envy shrugged. "What's a little bit more than?"

"Too much! No. Do something less painful-"

Snip.

Author's note: See? I told you it was crazy. I bet you didn't believe me. Haha….you'll get more soon I promise. Part two of ch. 2 is already half way typed up. You'll have it within two days…I PROMISE! Review please!