I'm trying this thing, I don't know if you've heard of it, I certainly hadn't, it's called not rambling, so. Ye. Um. Read. Enjoy.

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"Took a long time to convince the Colonel not to lock her up."

"Yeah. He only agreed when we said that we wouldn't leave her side."

Kara groaned, moving slightly.

"Hey, she's waking up."

"Hello? Curly?"

Kara grunted in response, opening her bleary eyes. She was looking into the face of the blonde-haired boy with fiery golden eyes. She glanced behind him and saw the large suit of armor. It moved, and she could hear the sound of almost a bell, metal against metal, with no other thing present.

He…

"Wow..." she whispered, impressed.

"Huh?" said the blonde boy.

"You're… Edward, right?" Kara asked, trying to push herself up. "And you're... Alphonse?"

Edward pushed her down onto the pillows, directing, "Quit it, Curly. You're injured, so don't push yourself."

"Pot calling the kettle... black, Edward. But," she added thoughtfully, "I suppose that's a... tu quoque fallacy... isn't it?"

"Too quoke?" Ed asked, confused.

She fell back with little protest; her chest was still aching, her throat still constricted. Ordinarily, she could heal herself of the toll of going through the gate, but she hadn't really had the chance, yet, since Shiro sent her wherever the fuck he wanted the bastard why does he—

She breathed deeply, calming herself. "How's that injured guy? Hughes, wasn't it?"

Edward and Alphonse exchanged worried glances.

"Major Hughes," Edward provided. "He's alive, barely."

"Did you find the one that looked like a palm tree?" she asked, not missing how they tensed at her question.

"Palm tree?" Edward tried to say casually, but he was clearly worse at lying than he was at bonding souls to armor—impressive, to be honest, she had to admit. "That's a weird description."

"Alright," she said slowly, watching closely for any reaction, "he's almost short, but not quite. Male, black hair that sticks out, you know-" She held her free hand up beside her head, fingers splayed. "-like a palm tree, and skinny…" She waited as they exchanged glances, then added, "And he could heal himself with red light."

"You mean Envy?!" Edward shouted. She almost grinned at his naivete in the art of lying.

"I don't know his name," she answered instead. She was already starting to like the two—far more than Colonel horse, anyway.

"Are you saying that he attacked Major Hughes?" Edward demanded.

She frowned slightly, annoyed. Rubbing at her ear before returning her hand to her collarbone, she retorted, "I wouldn't know, would I? I just exploded into existence, and you expect me to know the random people at the crash sight? Chill your jets-!" Kara broke off, coughing again. Blood spattered over the sheets. "Damn it," she panted.

"What's wrong with you? Can we help?" Alphonse asked worriedly, taking a step closer and bending down beside her bed so that he was almost eye level. Kara appreciated this attempt at eye contact far more than Colonel horse's, the thought of whom was already making her blood boil. But she knew that he was probably just over worried about his friend, and that was why he was being so stupid and annoying and judgy and damnit Shiro why-

She shook her head, much to the bemusement of Edward and presumably Alphonse, while saying, "Yes. Get me some chalk, or a pen, or a pencil, or my marker, which I notice isn't on me anymore…" At their confusion, she added, "Just, anything I could draw with."

"For what?" Edward asked cautiously, holding a hand up to stop Alphonse from handing Kara a pencil.

She rolled her eyes, a smirk twitching the corners of her lips. "So I can heal myself, duh. I am an alchemist, after all."

"An alchemist?" Edward jumped up from his chair beside her bed.

She grinned. "Yeah, an alchemist. And," she added, a tad haughtily, "I'd like to heal myself, if you and Colonel horse don't mind."

Edward and Alphonse shared a look, before Alphonse handed her the pencil, along with a sheet of paper from a notepad. "Heal yourself, but don't try to escape," he asked quite politely, considering.

"Yeah, Yeah," Kara dismissed, taking the proffered items and setting the paper in front of her.

The two watched—Kara could swear she saw the intrigue and genuine curiosity in, not only Edward's, but also Alphonse's eyes—as she drew a circle with complicated characters, looping them in a way they hadn't seen before. When she was finished, she tossed the pencil to the side and put both her ring, middle, and pointer fingers on the circle, causing the transmutation to spiral up her fingers in a light green glow. When the last of the circle disappeared up her fingers, twisted around her hand and arm, she brought her hand to her collarbone.

The runes spun off her fingers and onto her, spreading over her skin under her clothes. After a minute, her arm was clear, and the circle glowed again. As the soft light faded as though being absorbed into her skin, Edward looked up at her, astonished.

"What the hell was that, Curly?"

"Healing alchemy," she answered simply. "Here's your pencil." She handed Alphonse the pencil and sat up slowly, twisting to test if it had worked properly. She tossed them a grin. "I'm Kara. I'd like to heal that guy, if Colonel horse will allow it."

"You could?" Alphonse said eagerly.

"And why should we believe that you won't kill him?" asked Edward skeptically, though he was watching her with blatant curiosity and ill-disguised excitement.

Proper alchemist reaction, she thought to herself, smirking slightly.

"Uh, you don't?" she returned simply.

After a long silence, there was a knock at the door. When it creaked open, the Colonel strode in.

Kara grimaced. "Colonel horse, here to assault me again?!"

"Have you found anything out, Fullmetal?" the Colonel asked, ignoring her, though she caught him grit his teeth.

Ed glanced at her, then addressed the Colonel, "Her name is Kara, Colonel Bastard."

Kara blinked in surprise. She was liking the pair more and more every second.

"Kara, hm?"

"And there was another person on the scene." Edward nodded towards the door. Grudgingly, he and the Colonel left the room.

"Sorry about this," Alphonse said quietly, taking Edward's vacated seat beside her bed.

"It's okay. I hope you're brother doesn't tell Colonel horse that I'm an alchemist. I'll probably be moved to tighter security."

"I don't think you will. See, we know who that other guy was." Al handed Kara a glass of water, which she absently accepted.

"Thanks. You do? Who-?"

The door creaked open again.

"Bring her," the Colonel ordered the blonde haired woman from before. She strode up to Kara, looking far softer than so far, and much more so than the Colonel.

Despite the sudden kindness showing on her face, Kara leaned away, wary. "What's going on?"

The woman held up a pair of handcuffs. "I'm going to cuff you before taking you to Major Hughes to heal him."

She glanced at Ed and saw him giving her the thumbs up. Relaxing slightly, Kara held her other hand out beside her restrained one for the cuffs.

"Quiet, Kara," ordered the Colonel.

"Yes sir, Colonel horse!" Kara quipped. The Colonel glowered.

|^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^|

It was a short walk to Hughes's room, and when Kara entered she gasped, stopping short. The man in front of her was barely clinging to life.

"So how does your healing alchemy work?" the Colonel asked, still aggressive, as the group filed into the room.

Kara shook her head slowly, not bothering to look at him. She could guess his expression: Annoyed, indignant, stupid. "I doubt it will work alone at this point."

"What?"

She shook her head again, not feeling particularly patient. "Let me see him."

"You can see him from here!"

She clicked her tongue, spinning on him. "I mean, idiot, it probably. Won't. Work. Alone! And I need my hands to examine him!" she added in a snap.

"You want us to take off your handcuffs? Do you think we're stupid?" the Colonel demanded, but Kara had had enough.

Taking a step towards him, she retorted, "Yeah, you know what, I do. I do think you're stupid!" Spinning on her heal, she started towards Hughes.

"Relax," Edward warned, grabbing her arm, but Kara shook him off.

"If you want him to die, then stop me," she challenged, stepping beside the bed. "He's barely clinging to life right now, and I won't let your stupidity kill someone! Idiots! Idiots, idiots, idiots!" she ranted, looking Hughes over. "Why'd you send me to a world of idiots, Shiro?"

"What are you-?"

She guessed someone had stopped the Colonel for her as he cut off, but she didn't care, she had to focus.

"You're such a jerk," she grumbled, forgetting those behind her as she glanced at the report by the bed. "A white, weird, annoying jerk!"

She clapped her hands absentmindedly, allowing her to remove the cuffs and bring her arms forward, running over his chest. "Heartbeat fairly steady, but not stable… Fucking sleeves," she swore to herself, pulling them up. She touched his forehead lightly, opened an eye, put her fingers to his throat. "Shot through the left side of head. Numerous scrapes. Three large cuts on left arm. Sprained ankle. Concussion, probably from the explosion, freaking Shiro."

After a couple minutes she turned around to the group.

"Alright," she said stately, ignoring the shock that had registered on the Colonel's face. "Where's the doctor? I need some medicine and you guys probably have no idea what I mean when I say Eclogon powder."

"I don't know what you're talking about either, Miss," said the doctor. He had apparently slipped into the room while she had been examining Hughes.

She snorted. "Previous medicine only? I have to make it myself, then. Fine. Where is the medicine cupboard?"

She followed him out the door and came back a couple minutes later; both she and the doctor were holding armfuls of medicine.

"Set it there. Get me a table!" she ordered no one in particular as she strode to a cupboard and dug in it, extracting a pair of gloves which she slipped on. She turned around to the table Alphonse had moved for her. "Thanks, Alphonse. Doctor, get out of the way."

She grabbed handfuls of bottles, sprinkled this onto a scale before funneling it into a separate container, then repeated the action with another powder. "Right… covers the general possibility of…"

Several minutes later, she straightened and sighed.

"Right. Now, chalk!" she said sharply, pulling the gloves off. Again, Alphonse got it for her, and she took it, beginning to draw out a similar type of circle as for herself. When she was done, the center of the floor was covered with chalk.

"Stay back!" she commanded. Not waiting for an answer, she put all ten fingers onto the array.

The room seemed to explode with green light, but became surreally quiet. Kara stood up silently and walked over to Hughes, placing her right hand on his head, and her left over his chest, right above his heart.

Strange music drifted towards the group, and they slowly realized that Kara was singing. It started very low, but rose and rose as the green light grew dimmer.

Then she stopped. The green light vanished, and the eerie song faded.

"Complete," she said as to herself, before groaning and dropping beside his bed.

A low moan, and— "…Roy?"

"Hughes!"

It was chaos for several minutes, and as the ruckus died down, Roy approached Kara, whom Alphonse had helped up into a chair. She eyed him warily, but he only said, "Thank you, Kara," in a tight, formal voice, before turning quickly away.

"You're welcome, Colonel horse." Kara stuck her tongue out at him.

"You've gotta tell us how that works," Edward was saying, fascinated.

"We've never seen anything like it!" Alphonse agreed.

Her lips twitched upwards again. Maybe this wasn't so bad a world, after all.

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Still trying not to ramble. Uh,,m,, I guess, no, yeah, thanks for reading!
{Your Names In Japanese} for this chapter are~
{Alexis: アレクシス}
{Addison: アディスン}
{Mackenzie: マッケンジー}
{Logan: ローガン}