DISCLAIMER: -puts on the most professional voice she can manage- Hello there readers. I do not own the manga/anime Full Metal- -breaks character- Okay, this is ridiculous. I don't own FMA. Do I really have to keep putting this at the beginning of every chapter?

A/N: Okay, I'm sorry for the lack of update. Uhm, this isn't a very nice chapter either, I'm just going to warn you right now. While you're reading it, I'm currently moving to Antarctica to live with the penguins in an ice cave you'll never ever find, because I'm pretty sure you're going to kill me. I will update as soon as I can, but school's started so, I'm busy with all that good stuff and yeah. So, please read and enjoy.

Chapter 14: An Alchemical Secret of A Different Kind. G.

The snake hissed lightly, still staring at Riza. Her heart rate was now so fast that it hardly felt like it was beating at all. The woman before then stroked the snake's head softly.

"Now, now Fang..." she cooed. "Enough of that. Ve don't vant to frighten her avay now, do ve?" She shook her head. "No, I didn't think so."

Riza stared at them, disgusted. How could she be so affectionate to something so vile? Ed had fallen silent and was watching them with a look of complete shock on his face. She looked up to notice.

"Vhat is the matter, Fullmetal?" she asked. "Am I not vhat you vere expecting?"

He cocked his head to one side, still staring at her. "No, I just...pictured you...a bit more..." he couldn't seem to find the right words.

"Masculine?" she finished for him. She chuckled grimly and moved toward him. "I know. Hiding in the shadows like that, no one really knows vhat they're facing. But do you really think a man could come up vith a plan as foolproof as mine? Do you think a man vould do all the research that I had to do to get vhere I am today? I don't think so."

Ed growled. He knew she wasn't working alone. He knew that her little servants had probably done all the research for her. She really didn't know what she was doing. He was convinced it was all a bluff.

"So what is this master plan of yours?" he asked.

Riza looked at him, taking her eyes off the woman for the first time. He was glaring in the woman's direction, his golden eyes shining.

She paused for a moment and turned to him, smiling. "I suppose I can tell you, since I honestly plan to kill you vonce I am done."

She moved as if she were going to return to her throne, but reconsidered and turned back to Ed and Riza. Fang's tongue flickered in and out of his mouth and his gaze had not focused on anyone other than Riza.

"Perhaps by now you haff discovered vhat I am," she started slowly.

Riza and Ed looked at each other. Neither of them really knew what she was, or what she meant by that question.

"An Alchemist?" Ed ventured.

She smirked and nodded. "Yes, I am an Alchemist. Pretty soon I vill be the Alchemist. Vonce all the Alchemists are gone and I harness their powers, I vill be unstoppable. I haff most of them now, but I am still missing some."

The pair watched her as she began to pace in front of them. She continued with her story.

"You, of course, Fullmetal and that pesky Flame Alchemist. He's been dodging me for years. Not for much longer though," she turned to eye Riza. "I've got the vone thing he cares about most."

Riza felt herself tense up at the mention of Roy. How did she know about them? It had only just happened... The thought of him pained her though. She was determined to, but if she didn't make it out of there alive, she would never be able to see him again. She only hoped the idiot hadn't followed her. She didn't need both of them to get hurt. With the luck she'd been having though, it wasn't likely he'd have stayed behind.

"Elizabeth Hawkeye..." the woman's voice whispered as she moved toward the First Lieutenant. "You haff become the most important person in my life. The key to my success."

Ed's mouth twitched. It was clear that he wanted to say something, but didn't. He waited for the woman to continue.

"I know almost every alchemical secret there is..." she said. "There are only a few, like the Alchemists themselves, that have managed to escape me." She paused to stare at Riza. "Your Father had secrets, didn't he? Secrets he passed down to you, I believe..."

Ed eyed Riza curiously, not sure what this woman was talking about. Riza breathed slowly, finding her voice.

"I don't think I understand..." she said coolly.

Fang's hissing grew louder as the woman circled Riza, her eyes scanning Riza's back with keen interest. When Riza didn't say anything, she felt a hand close on her shoulder. It tightened painfully.

"I think you do..."

Without warning, Ed jumped forward, nicking the side of Fang with his arm. The woman reacted and turned on Ed, moving toward him threateningly. When he charged at her again, Riza moved to aim her gun. Before she could pull the trigger, the woman whipped around once again, this time touching a part of her dress. There was a bright light and both of Riza's guns were sent across the room, firing loudly upon impact. Riza cringed, for the first time, at the sound of her own gun firing.

XXXXX

"Are they dead?" Al asked, looking down at the bodies surrounding him.

Hughes studied the faces of each of them. "Some of them. Some might just be stunned though. I don't intend on sticking around to figure out..." he wiped the blood off one of his knives with the sleeve of his jacket.

Al nodded shortly and followed Hughes as they entered the adjoining hallway. They had felt the shift that had gone through the building and realized that they were trapped on the first floor.

"What should we do?" Al asked, trying his best to force a door open. Despite his massive size and strength, the door wouldn't budge.

"Alchemy?" Hughes suggested simply, staring at the door helplessly.

Al didn't know what he was supposed to do. He was certain that it was done with Alchemy and could possibly be removed with it, but whoever had placed it there was obviously very powerful, and would not be thwarted so easily.

"Where do you suppose Colonel Mustang is?" he asked, looking up and down the nearby hallways.

Hughes shrugged, not looking as concerned as he truly was. "Wherever he is, I'm sure he's fine. Unless, of course, he's doing something stupid, which, unfortunately, is actually very likely..." his voice trailed off.

Al frowned and tried to force the door open again, but to no avail. His eyes traveled to the ceiling where he knew his brother was somewhere above him fighting an invisible villain.

"We should get military backup..." Hughes said absently. "Military backup would be helpful. There's not much else we can do right now.

Al nodded, though he didn't want to leave. He wanted to go after Ed and help him. He didn't like the idea that his brother could be hurt and there was nothing he could really do about it.

Hurrying back outside, the pair hopped into the car that Roy had hastily parked halfway onto the curb. Shaking his head slowly, Hughes took the driver's seat and, pulling a Roy, sped half the way back to Headquarters. Al watched as the building became smaller in the rearview mirror, all the while still feeling extremely guilty.

XXXXX

Roy flung himself down several more hallways, only to find him more lost than he was before. He wondered if Al and Hughes would be able to find him or even get to him if they needed to, but didn't want to worry about that now.

Finally finding a staircase leading to the next floor, he could have sworn he had heard gunshots from the floor above, meaning only one thing.

Riza had found the enemy.

Either that or she found Ed. Either one was a possibility.

He rushed up the stairs, feeling as if he couldn't move fast enough. He threw all his weight against the door at the top, but nothing happened. Knowing that he would have to resist the temptation to use Alchemy as much as possible, he tried to open the door a million different ways, all of them failing horribly.

He fell against the door, pressing his ear against it. He could hear the sound of metal hitting something on the other side. The gunshots had stopped. It was strange that only two had been fired. His eyes widened as he heard a woman's voice, slowly followed by another more familiar one. Riza was on the other side of that door.

Finally, he stepped back, his eyes searching every inch of the door in front of him. He had no choice left. Praying that it wouldn't cause any further trouble, he held his hand out in front of him, bracing himself for the amount of force he was about to use.

Slowly, he closed his eyes.

XXXXX

Managing to knock Ed backward, the woman glared in Riza's direction. "You are only digging yourself a deeper grave, Lieutenant! If you vould only cooperate, it vouldn't haff to be like this."

"Never..." she hissed through gritted teeth.

The woman's eyes lit up. "So, you do know something?" she said with a small smile. "You do know the secrets of your Father. They are written on-"

"You can look," Riza shot, her temper reaching it's highest level. "There's nothing left."

"Liar!" the woman growled.

"It's gone!" Riza told her. "We destroyed it. It's burned off."

"Ve?" The woman stared, still holding Ed off with unbelievable strength.

Riza leered at her, "Colonel Roy Mustang and I..."

Angrily, the woman let go of Ed and launched herself toward Riza. The two women fought hand to hand for several long moments. At one point, Riza felt something wrap around her arm. Fang slowly started to make his way toward her shoulder.

Riza tore her arm away, Fang's mouth narrowly missing her elbow. Her other arm, however, was still locked in the woman's grip. Suddenly, a burning sensation traveled under her skin. The woman was touching a small pattern on her dress.

In the new light, Riza could finally see what was going on. Embroidered onto the woman's gown, where thousands of little transmutation circles. Riza looked up at her attacker, stunned.

"You haff discovered my secret?" she smirked. "I thought it vas rather handy to haff all of my circles vith me at all times. Don't you think so, Lieutenant?"

Trying to wrench her arm from the woman's grasp, she didn't answer the question. Another noise had attracted her attention. Someone was thumping against the door. She tried to ignore the sound, but something in the back of her mind kept telling her that it was someone trying to help them.

"Let go of me!" Riza yelled, the pain becoming even more intense.

Fang slid to the floor and started toward Ed. The woman whipped Riza around, locking one of her arms around her neck. Her other hand roamed Riza's back.

"Are you sure I'm not going to find anything here?" she whispered into Riza's ear.

Riza's body trembled. She felt the back of her jacket being lifted. The woman's eyes shined in the torchlight as she caught sight of the bottom of an intricate tattoo.

A loud hissing noise interrupted them and the woman looked up to see Fang scattered all over the floor. Ed was standing in the middle of the snake remains, grinning evilly at the woman. In an attempt to save Riza, Ed, now with his bladed arm, threw himself toward the woman, catching her off guard.

She pushed Riza to the side and went after the pint-sized Alchemist, performing different alchemical surprises every chance she could get. It was a wonder how Ed managed to dodge so many of them.

Scrambling across the floor, Riza searched for her lost guns. Most of the ground was dark and they had been cast into the shadowy part of the room.

She saw one of them shine momentarily as a torch was thrown across the room. Her hand closed around the cold metal and she brought herself to her feet. The woman turned around for simply a moment, catching sight of Riza.

"Ah, ah, ah!" she said tauntingly.

At the precise same moment, two things happened. There was a loud explosion and the door was busted open in a burst of flames. Roy entered the room, as quick as possible, shielding himself from the flames that remained.

He looked up just in time to see the woman touch a circle on her arm. As if it were happening in slow motion, Roy watched as Riza was thrown backward across the room, making contact with the wall and landing in a heap on the floor.

Watching in horror, Roy stared at her, waiting for her to get back up again.

"Riza?" he said almost breathlessly. He was certain that his heart had stopped.

The motionless body remained so. Ed attacked the woman while her back was turned, but Roy hardly took any notice. Slowly, he started to move toward Riza's body, picking up the pace. Her pale face was coming closer and closer.

"Riza?" his voice rose in anguish. "RIZA!"

A/N: -settles down in secret cave surround by penguins who are watching the computer screen with interest- Okay, so now I'm in hiding. Don't kill me, but I had been planning a chapter to end like this since the very beginning. Like I said, I'm going to do my best to update as soon as possible. (What can I say, I love cliffhangers.) Anyways, I HAVE been thinking of you guys, so please don't think I've abandoned you or anything. (Even though you all have forced me to now hide in a cave with penguins...-plays with the funny animals-) Please REVIEW! Again, love hearing from you guys. There was something else I wanted to say...but now I'm drawing a blank. Oh well. OH YEAH! There will be FOUR more chapters (if I play my cards right and actually get around to writing them.) so unfortunately, this story will be ending soon. I hope you will become interested in some of my other work. Check out my profile for more details.