:

:

:

She called for his presence immediately. It was painstakingly hard to maintain his steely composure when all he wanted to do was run to the throne room. He hoped that her royal highness did not have ill-fated news of the war.

He entered the room with a swift turn, paced to her throne, and bowed before his queen.

"You summoned me, your majesty?" His deep voice boomed throughout the spacious hall.

The queen's aged face softened as she lifted her eyes to him. "Indeed, General Mustang. You may rise."

His years in service showed in every movement that he made, for he was quickly back to his feet, standing like a pillar of strength and loyalty. He was the definition of a perfect soldier.

"It seems my castle was raided this morning." She stated, a single grey eyebrow rose to further punctuate the sentence.

If he were a younger man, he would have gasped, shown some kind of worry, but he remained stiff. Only his eyes responded to the comment, his pupils shrinking at the thought of what this could mean.

"It was a small group of thieves that knew alchemy. No one was harmed." She continued. "Your soldiers captured two of them. It seems they had an interest in my treasure room."

His fists clenched. The bastards.

"One thief, however, made off with a single item." She looked off to the stained glass windows that decorated the high walls of her throne room; the bright hues danced along the white marble floor as the sun shined through them. "The item he stole is worthless by means of gold, but it means the world to me. I want it back, General."

"As you wish, your majesty." He replied. "When shall I start my search for this criminal?"

"Immediately." She answered, and he bowed deeply, then turned to leave the room.

"Oh, General." She called, and he turned to listen further. " You'll be needing your best soldiers for the retrieval. This is no ordinary thief."

The ring in her voice caused his nerves to tingle. "Your majesty, whom am I chasing after?"

She smirked. "Have you heard of the bandit known as the Fullmetal Alchemist?"

:

Edward was at his wit's end.

He was a man who lived off struggle; a poor boy who turned to a life of crime to make ends meet for him and his brother. He fought countless battles, faced seemingly impossible obstacles, risked his life on countless occasions and never broke a sweat. The man faced fate time and time again, welcoming whatever was thrown at him with a confident smirk and a clap of his hands.

Yet here he was, kneeling in front of a childishly fussy woman that he didn't know, and he didn't think he could take anymore. They couldn't have been traveling for more than an hour, and Winry had done nothing but hinder any progress they could have made, with her constant whining, jumping at every little sound, and constantly tripping and falling. It was ridiculous! This girl was going to be the end of him, he just knew it.

"Stop whining!" He spat and gripped her ankle tightly.

She winced, and Ed grumbled as he examined the bottom of her supposedly injured foot.

"Nothing's there, you baby."

"That's because it healed already!" She fussed, her face turned pink from anger.

"Idiot, wounds don't heal that easily!" He snapped.

"Mine do!" She yelled. "And don't call me that, you insufferable jerk!"

He pulled away from her, his eyes were wide as he dramatically swung his arms high in the air.

"How am I a jerk?!" He shrieked. "I'm not the one that tied me up and forced me to let you tag along!"

Her cheeks began to bubble again, as he noticed they often did when she's mad, and Edward clapped his hands to her face, successfully deflating them.

"AAARGH!" Winry screamed and hit him in the jaw with a hard uppercut.

He flailed his arms wildly in an attempt to maintain balance, before falling flat on his bottom. It hurt a lot more than he would have thought.

He shook his head hard and refocused his eyes. Winry stood abruptly and stormed off, moving through the forest at a fast pace.

"Hey! Where are you going?" He called, as he rubbed his jaw.

"Away from you!" She shouted, and continued on.

He grumbled something profane under his breath as he stood, and began to run after her.

"Stop!" He called out, but she continued on.

He was rather stunned by the extreme distance between them, how did move that fast in such a short time? More importantly, why the hell wasn't she moving like that before? There wouldn't even be a problem now if she did!

"Winry!" He shouted. "Slow down!"

She stopped. He could see her back go slack as if she were sighing, and she turned around.

When he finally reached her, he had to bend over and take a moment to take his breath.

"What?" She pouted and crossed her arms.

Ed rolled his eyes as he panted, and raised a hand to her. "You still have my watch."

:

Winry had never been so angry in her entire life. The nerve of that fiendish, frustrating oaf! Her nostrils flared as she stared down at the foolish man. He didn't care about her, he was worried about his stupid trinket! What an insensitive moron!

She kicked his shin in frustration and stormed off once more. If he wasn't going to have the decency to ask forgiveness, then he was not getting anything from her anytime soon.

"What the hell is your problem, woman?!" He called out, falling back on his bottom.

"YOU!" She exclaimed.

She could hear him holler as she stomped away.

When she reached the edge of the forest, she sat on the earthy ground and tried to calm herself down. It took a bit of time, but eventually, her breathing went back to normal, and her deep desire to beat Edward in the head began to deplete.

His words continued to replay in her head, and as much as she hated to admit it, Edward did have a point. Although he had no right to be as rude as he was, he never wanted her to join. She forced him to let her accompany him on his journey, and she didn't even tell him why. She simply held him hostage until he agreed, hoping that he'd take her far away from that underground prison.

Winry looked back at the forest and thought it might be best for her to apologize. He may be an arrogant brat, but she didn't need to that way as well. Perhaps, if she explained herself, things would be more amicable between them. If she really was going to travel with this man, they needed to be on good terms.

But how would she even apologize?

Almost absent-mindedly, she pulled the trinket from her dress and stared at it. What was so special about this old thing? What made it so important to Edward? She took in every detail engraved in the dull silver and noticed a deep grooving that surrounded the outside rim of the strange-looking pendant. Did it open?

She picked at the deep groove, trying to pry it open with her nails, but failed. She found a thin rock and tried using it as a wedge to force it open, but found no luck. She stared at it hard, thinking maybe there was a trick to it, like a lock.

Then, a strange thought flashed through her head. She closed her eyes and tried to pull the thought back to her consciousness. The thought formed into a picture behind her eyes, one of a strange formation of lines and shapes. She focused on it and clung tightly to the trinket. She felt a lightness flow through her, and the trinket 'clicked', opening itself to her.

"How… odd." She whispered and looked inside.

:

A misshapen man stood before her. He was warning her of something, and in his hands was something bright. Too bright. All color was gone, except for this red light.

"…. Elixir of life…"

This caught her ear. 'Life', this was important.

He didn't want to use it, but she needed him to so desperately. She begged, and he did.

He took the bright light, from a tiny silver thing-

A woman, she was so beautiful.

She woke up.

A baby….

"….and they will be stolen from you…"

:

Winry gasped and clasped the watch shut.

What was that? What did she just see?

Her body felt strange, as if something was released upon seeing.. whatever it was that she saw. What it another dream, like she had so many times before? She looked at Edward's treasure and pondered these thoughts deeply. She hoped she didn't do something wrong to it. Perhaps it would be best to give it back to him now and hope that they could start over.

Dangling the item in front of her eyes, she gazed in wonder at the strange little object.

She didn't notice the horses running up the path nearby, or the men riding them taking notice of her presence.

"Excuse me, Miss." A deep voice boomed.

Winry jumped at the sound and turned to see a soldier on horseback. His poise was rigid, and his stare was intense as it landed on the object in her hands.

"Where did you get that?" He asked, and Winry grew frightened.

She tried to stammer out an answer, but the man had already called for his soldiers to 'arrest' her.

Edward might not be getting his precious trinket back after all.

:

:

: