-Later that night, in Central HQ-

As Maes works, reading the newspaper, I sit and chat with Cheska, who was awesome enough to make some hot chocolate for us both. "So why are you trailing the Lt. Colonel?" I shrug. "Well, according to what I do know, his job is alot like a detective and I was always kinda interested in that kinI figured I'd learn from a professional. Plus, I'm always looking for a little inspiration for stories." "You're a writer?" asks that one black guy who also works here, but who's name I never knew. I smile up at him and nod. "Yup. Sort off a free time thing I do." He nods. "If you ever need someone to check over your stories, I could always help." I glance at Cheska in surprise. "Really? You'd help me with that?" She smiles and nods. "Sure. I mean, the Elrics got me a job so doing a favor for a friend of theirs is the least I can do!" I grin and nod. "That'd be awesome Cheska!" Suddenly, Maes slams the newspaper he's been reading on the table. He hurries from the room. "I'm going to the records room!" He calls. I yelp and jump up. "Wait up!" I shout and dash after him, calling a thank you to Cheska.

Maes stalks down the hall, with me close behind. I huff slightly.

As he enters the records room, I stop and stand by the door, summoning a sword and a pistol, slipping them both into my pants' pockets. I can hear Maes checking over the documents. I flick on the lights and shut the doors, moving to stand in front of them, hands behind my back and feet spread apart the distance of my shoulders.

"Well, well, what have we here?"

I spin, pulling my fists in front of me to see Lust standing a few feet away from me. She smiles at me smugly, placing a hand on her hip. "And what are you? A little young to be playing bodyguard, aren't you?" I smirk. "A little old to be chasing after 30-something year old men?" I sass right back. She scoffs. "And what makes you think that?" In a flash, I have my sword drawn and touching her throat. Her eyes widen as she takes a step back in surprise. "Wha-" I narrow my eyes. "I will not allow you to kill Maes Hughes."

A moment of silence…

She chuckles and pushes my blade down. "Why on earth would I want to kill anyone, little girl?" I feel my temper flare up. I lean my head down and take a deep breath to keep from breaking out into an Ed rant. I look up at her through the strands of hair that fall over my face. "Because he knows your plans Solaris." I stand up straight and point the sword at her again. "Or should I say… Lust the Lascivious?" She starts and takes a step back. "What- how-" I tilt my head to the side slightly and muster up my most threatening look. "Run back to your precious Father and deliver to him this message." I stab her through her tattoo, causing her to gasp in pain. "No matter what you do now, no matter how much you fight, no matter how far you run, no matter how well you hide, I will hunt all the homunculi down and kill. Every. Last. One." I withdraw my blade and she collapses to the ground. I glare down at her "dead" body, the wound already healing. I turn and fling open the record room doors. "Maes! We need to move! NOW!" He glances at the papers on the desk before closing a small notebook in his hand and stuffing it into his inside shirt pocket. He hurries out of the room. "I need to call Mustang.. and the Major… and the Fuhrer…" He mutters to himself, adjusting his glasses to where the glare makes it hard to see his eyes. I sigh and jog beside him-

"Agh!" Maes drops to the ground, gripping his shoulder. I gasp and spin around to see Lust, standing with one of her finger-spears partially extended. "Now that wasn't very nice, running from me like that." I growl and draw my sword.

*CLASH* *CLANG-CLANG-clang*

Her finger spear shoots forward and knocks the sword out of my hand and back several feet. I growl at her. She pulls back her spear, smirking. "Not so tough now, are you-" She gulps for air as a small knife pierces through her skull. I glance over my shoulder to see Maes holding another knife ready. He grunts. "Damnit." He coughs and returns his hand on his shoulder. "Let's go." I pull one of his arms over my shoulders and proceed to help him in running. I glance back as we turn a corner, just catching a glance of Lust reaching up to grab the knife in her forehead.

We enter the public phone room, the woman at the desk doing paper work. She glances up as we enter the room. "Oh, Lt. Colonel. Were you bragging about your family over the phone again…?" She gasps when she notices the blood on his uniform. "Lt. Colonel! You're bleeding!" Maes huffs as he walks, holding his shoulder and leaning on me quite heavily. "It's nothing.." His breathing is shaky and deep, nearly wheezing. "I need to use the phone." He walks to the phone and pulls his arm over my head to lean against the wall. He picks up the phone.. and then stops, a thought crossing his mind. The desk girl comes up behind us, holding a first aid kit.

Maes slams the phone back down and turns, walking away as quickly as he can. "Sorry about that, carry on." "Lt. Colonel!" She cries as I dash past her and after him. 'You are NOT going to die Maes! I promised myself that I'd make sure that you at least survive today! And I swear on my life that I will NOT break that promise!'

I follow him outside and several blocks away, all the way to a public phone booth in a nearby park. He gets in and dials a number. I close the door behind him and stand at the entrance, looking around for anyone who might come near. I hear him curse at the operator.

*Ca-chick*

I glance to my left out of the corner of my eye. Ross frowns at me, pistol next to my head. "I'm going to have to ask you to step aside Ms. Green." I growl under my breath. "For what reason?" "I need to arrest him." I turn and fully face her, hands still behind my back. "I can't let you do that Ross." "And why not?" The corner of my mouth twitches upwards in a sneer and I can almost see a glint in my eye mirroring in her's. "Because you're not Ross." Her eyes widen. "What? How can you say that? I've been around you so often-" I point to just under my left eye. "The real Ross has a mole under her eye." She looks surprised before an evil grin stretches over her face. "Is that so?" By now, Maes has opened the phone booth door. "What the hell?!" I whip out my pistol and point it at "Ross". "GET DOWN!" I shout and Maes hits the deck as I empty the entire clip. She takes a painful step back every shot. I glare. "You won't fool me, you fucking palm tree." "She" stands and chuckles. "Oh? And what makes you say that?" I open my mouth to shout at him when his arm flies out and hits me in the gut. I feel myself fly past the phone booth and into a tree several yards back. I gasp in pain at the crack I hear as my body hits the bark. I crash to the ground. Fearing the worst, I shakily push myself onto my hands and knees. I pat my back, checking for any broken bones. I look up to see Envy transform into Gracia. I gasp as Maes' eyes widen. Frantically, I search for something.

My hand closes around a large tree branch. I grab it and dash forward.

Maes looks horrified, unable to stab the fake Gracia. Just as Envy goes to pull the trigger, I bash him in the side with the branch, breaking it and sending Envy flying. I hear the gunshot and the crack of bone and tree. As Envy goes flying, I skid on the ground, spinning on my heels to check on Maes. "Mr. Hughes!" I cry, dashing to his side. He's collapsed to the ground, blood gushing from his shoulder and the side of his neck. Terrified, I pull him into a sitting position. "Mr. Hughes! Mr. Hughes! Please! If you're still alive, give me a sign!" Hot tears of shame and anger flow freely as I press my hand to his neck wound. "Mr. Hughes! Please! Think of Gracia! A-and Elyisia! P-lease! Wake up!" He winces and his eyelids flutter slightly. I gasp in relief. "Thank you Truth!" I hear Envy grunting loudly from nearby. I pull Maes' arm over my shoulders and pull him to his feet. "Don't die yet!" I say to Maes. "J-just, uh! Keep thinking about your family! Stay alive for them!" I pull him along, out of the park and away from the murderous son of a bastard. "Keep thinking about your family!" I repeat the phrase over and over, keeping one hand over his heart. His heart rate is dropping dramatically. I force some of my life energy into his chest, forcing his heart to keep beating. I gasp as we duck into a dingy old alley. I set him down against the wall. I pant and lean on my knees. "Remind me to thank Dende for teaching me that little trick." Lillian sighs. 'Sure, sure.'

I kneel down and check the wounds. I take a deep breath and press my hand to his neck, blood coating my hand. I hold back some upchuck as I pull my hand away. I inhale deeply and snap, using my blood covered hand. A second Hughes appears, looking freshly dead. I shiver. "I really wish this wasn't a thing I could do, but it's finally come to use…*" I grab the real Hughes and pull his arm over my shoulders again, thankful that he's unconscious. I force more energy into his chest, earning a cough from the Lt. Colonel. I put two fingers to my forehead and force away all other thoughts, begging myself to focus on Gracia's life signature. Once I've locked on, I imagine us standing next her.

I feel a brief wind that ruffles my hair. When the wind dies down, I open my eyes to see Gracia with her back to us and washing dishes. "Mrs… Gracia?" I pant. She spins around and gasps. "MAES!" She rushes over, supporting his other side. "What happened?" I smile nervously. "Things didn't completely go according to plan." She sighs and then helps me get Maes to the living room and onto a couch. We set him down and she dashes to the bathroom to get the first aid kit. I sit down next to Maes and put my hand over his chest, feeling his heartbeat. "We made it this far Maes. You can hold on for a while longer." I hold up my hand, one finger pointed. "I'm gunna have to sear this shut or he'll bleed out." A small flame flickers into existence and becomes much like a blowtorch at low flame. I bite my lip and aim the flame at Maes' shoulder. "Just breathe, Lisa.. And don't freak out…" I bring the flame closer, to the point it licks at his exposed skin hungirly. I grit my teeth and bring it closer and it starts searing the wound. Maes starts awake and shout in pain. I wince and grip his shoulder, keeping him still. Maes' shouts of pain quickly diminish into hisses. Gracia comes racing downstairs and starts to work on his neck wound. Now that I'm looking at it, the bullet seemed to have just nicked Maes' neck not even an inch above his shoulder. Once his shoulder is seared shut, I leave so Gracia can properly work on his wounds.

The moment I walk up the stairs, I race to the bathroom and empty the contents of stomach into the toilet.

-The Next morning-

I walk downstairs from Elyisia's room, in which I spent the night on the bottom "bunk". My hair is a worse mess than usual and I feel absolutely terrible. I can't help but smile though. I fucking saved Maes from death. Ho-ly shi-at. I can hardly contain myself at how proud of myself I am. I get to the kitchen and drop into one of the seats. "Morning Mrs. Gracia." I yawn. She smiles sadly. "Morning." I eye her confusedly. "What's wrong?" My eyes widen in fear. "Did he not-" Gracia clamps a hand over my mouth. "Maes left early this morning in disguise. He called a little while ago to say he was safe." She explains in a low voice. "We still have to keep Elyisia believing that…" She chokes up and covers her own mouth, tears in her eyes. I jump up and hug her. She wraps her arms around me and smiles into my hair, her tears dripping over my head. "Thank you so much. You saved my husband's life." She sobs. I smile and hug her tighter. "I refused to let him die…" Tears prick at my own eyes. I pull away from her warm hug, slightly reluctant, and wipe away the pesky tears. "I just do what I can." She nods, smiling. I hop slightly and release a happy "Oh!" before grabbing a piece of paper and a pencil. I scribble down my cell phone number and fold it up, writing my name on the back before handing it to her. "Here. Call this number when you and Elyisia are safe or you need to get a hold of me." She nods, smiling softly.

"Will you come to the funeral?"

I sigh and shake my head. "I'm afraid not. If I go, I might screw up everything and let the people who attacked Maes and I yesterday know where he is." She nods understandingly. "Oh!" She opens the refrigerator and pulls out a packaged dish. "Here. Something for the trip." I glance at it to see a casserole dish of mac n' cheese. I grin at her and bow. "Thank you." I turn to leave before glancing at her. "Tell Elyisia I said good-bye." She nods and I leave the kitchen. I glance upstairs and smile mournfully. 'Don't be sad Eli… Your dad is fine.. I swear it...'

I leave the house and head to the train station. I'll be a bit too suspicious actually getting on the train, and I never bothered to get a ticket, so that leaves me with one other way of getting to Dublith at a decent time.

Time to fly.

I get to the station and jump on the caboose of one, waiting to lose sight of the actual station before jumping off flying to Dublith. 'That's one heart breaking event fixed. Now then.. how many more are there?'

*Lisa got an ability from Lillian not long after first meeting her during the events of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Next Dimension. If the blood of an injured person is on her hand and she snaps with that hand, she will create a dead clone of that person, complete with whatever wounds the person has at the time of the snap.

Ok, that's done and I hope you enjoyed this little slice of heaven and hell.

This is a skit the guys made up of what the next few chapters will be like:

Maes: *pretends to be dead*

Roy: *flipping his shit* I WILL AVENGE YOU MY FRIEND!

Ed and Al: *terrified and avoiding knives*

Winry: *automail otaku flip out*

Armstrong: *sparkles* *anime tears*

Scar: *still has cat on his head from last time*

Lisa: *not sure whether to fangirl about Izumi or cower in fear*

Lillian: *laughs evilly in the distance*

Markiplier: *screams while playing FNAF*

Lisa: Hold up, wait WHAT!

Markiplier: *runs*