Manami woke up the next morning, and her head was pounding. Despite the headache, she was grateful that she had a dreamless sleep..

"Morning." Ed walked over to her and handed her a mug with coffee in it.

"Morning…" Manami took a sip.

After a moment of silence, she dared to ask...

"Did Al come back?"

"... no." Ed answered, going to sit on the plank of wood next to her.

"..." Manami looked over to the window. She could see a beautiful blue sky, and only a slight breeze moving the trees.

The blizzard had passed.

The door opened and Ed and Manami looked up to see Miles step in the room, with two soldiers following in behind him.

"The storm has cleared." Miles announced. "Start getting ready. We'll probably be setting off today."

"Kimblee's gonna be suspicious if Al isn't with us." Manami mumbled.

"I know." Ed's lips pursed as he thought. "I just have to transmute a dummy."

"And put someone inside it." Manami added, to which Ed nodded in response.

Miles nodded back at them before looking to his soldiers. "We can't take any risks from Kimblee or his men. First chance you get, take them out."

"Yes sir."

Ed and Manami's eyes widened a little. They were planning to kill Kimblee? Manami noticed that Ed glanced over to her and she met his gaze for a moment.

"You're really… planning to kill them?" Ed looked back to Miles and went to stand up, Manami following suit.

"Of course." Miles turned to look at them.

"We're not going to have a part in that." Ed replied, frowning. "Instead, we should take him prisoner and interrogate him."

"And whose to say he would tell the truth?" Miles asked.

"Maybe so, but his men might be more compliant." Ed retorted. "For all we know, he could be manipulating them and forcing them to obey."

"Maybe so…" Miles sounded like he was giving the idea some thought. "But it's too high of a risk all the same. Have you forgotten the law of Briggs? The careless are the first to die. If you keep showing mercy, I guarantee it'll result in you or someone you love getting killed."

"..." Manami looked down to the ground. He was right… but she didn't want to admit it.

Ed was thinking the same thing.

"We aren't going to be careless." Miles said, then turned to walk to the door. "We're going to kill Kimblee."

And the door shut behind him, leaving them alone in the silent room once again.

"..." Manami crossed the room to the window and set down her cup of coffee on the sill. She looked out the window for a moment, wishing that she would see Al coming back.

But he didn't come.

"... Ed..?" She asked in a quiet voice. "Once we leave here… Al… he won't know where to look for us, will he?"

Her eyes lifted to see Ed's eyes widen in the reflection of the window. They didn't talk about any rendezvous points or anything…

"... no…" Ed finally answered, looking down to the floor now. "I don't think he will."

Manami felt her heart break a second time.

Ed had managed to do a superb job making an armor dummy that looked just like Al. Manami was the one to convince a soldier to walk inside and speak in a high pitched voice that… kind of sounded like Al?

"It's time to go." Miles approached them, and they nodded.

"Yes sir." The armor said in a deep voice.

"Ahem." Manami cleared her throat.

"Oh, uh…" The soldier changed his voice. "Okay, brother!"

"Ugh…" Ed groaned. "It'll be a miracle if we're not found out."

Manami bit her lip as they went to walk. They could see Kimblee walking ahead of them, with five soldiers surrounding him.

"Hey," Miles called to one of them, and the soldier hung back so he could speak with him.

"What's the plan?" Miles asked him.

"They're going to enter through that mining shaft..." The soldier pointed to a structure in the distance. "And search the tunnels."

"I see." Miles nodded. "Thank you."

"Actually… he doesn't trust Briggs soldiers, so he will be taking just us. He wishes for your squad to keep watch up above."

"... understood." Miles watched the soldier go to catch up with Kimblee.

"He's onto us…" Miles whispered, so only his group could hear. Manami's eyes widened a little and Ed's lips pursed.

"You two stall him." Miles said. "Our men are to get in position…"

"..." Manami looked nervously to Ed. He frowned back at her, but he went to walk ahead, and she followed. She glanced back one last time to see that the Briggs soldiers had already disappeared.

"I had a feeling you'd come, FullMetal and Wind Alchemists." Kimblee said when he heard them approaching him.

"Why wouldn't we be?" Ed asked. "You gave us orders to help you find Scar."

"Bullshit." Kimblee grinned at the two of them. "You're stalling so that the snipers have time to get in position."

Manami's eyes widened while Ed's narrowed.

"... what tipped you off?" Ed asked in a low voice.

"I can feel the intent to kill all around." Kimblee said simply. "What a pleasant sensation…"

Manami felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of her head.

"What, you're surprised?" Kimblee asked them. "I survived the Ishval War, after all."

He opened his arms, but then suddenly kneeled down and placed his hands on the ground.

BOOM!

Ed and Manami shielded themselves with their arms as they were blown back from Kimblee's explosion. Manami got up to see nothing but white swirling all around her.

Where was Kimblee?! Where was Ed?!

"Gah!" She could hear Ed grunt a few feet away.

"Ed!" She called, pulling her fans out of her pockets, but before she could move… something coiled around her whole body and lifted her off the ground.

"!" Manami yelled out and squirmed in her captor's tight grip.

"There's no use in resisting, Wind Alchemist. Stand down." A gruff voice said from behind. She looked down to see two hairy arms constricting her, so tightly that she almost couldn't breathe.

"Kimblee! Stop!" Ed yelled, sounding further away now.

They couldn't let him get away.

Manami got an idea, not liking the idea of doing it this way at first… but if she could move her wrists just enough to…

There were sudden flashes of blue light, emitting from the hairy arms around her. Blood suddenly exploded out, revealing big gashes across each arm.

"GAH!" As Manami hoped, the creature let her go and she fell to the ground. She gasped for air and then waved her fans to move the snowy dust away. She had to find Ed, and they had to get out of here!

Her eyes widened at the sight of what looked like a lion, holding Ed in the air by his throat. But in that same moment, Ed had stabbed through the arm that held his throat with his automail blade.

The lion roared and freed Ed from his grasp. Manami quickly ran over and waved her fan to blow the monster away, then looked behind her to see a gorilla charging at them. The gashes in his arms proved that he was the one who held her down earlier.

Manami waved her fans to blow him away in the same direction she sent the lion before turning back to Ed.

"Where did you see Kimblee go?!"

"This way!" Ed bolted, and Manami ran after him. They made it inside the shaft, and they both took a moment to catch their breath.

"Come on… he had to have gone this way." Ed went to walk ahead, Manami following after him. They went down a flight of stairs before they heard a slam up above, followed by the voices of the lion and gorilla chimeras.

"They went in here!"

"We've got to find them before they find Kimblee!"

Ed and Manami broke into a run. When they made it to the floor below, Ed clapped his hands and sealed the wall behind them.

"No way out…" Manami swallowed.

"I prefer to see it as 'no way in' for them." Ed jabbed his thumb behind him to point at the wall. "Kimblee can't be too far. Let's go."

Manami nodded and ran with him down another flight of stairs, and once they made it down… they saw the familiar white suit.

"So… you caught up." Kimblee turned to face them, frowning.

"What, you're surprised?" Manami quoted him. She was surprised at herself for managing to be cheeky at a time like this. "We've survived our fair share of crap, too."

"Well well…" Kimblee murmured. "You think the hostage is safe and this is what happens?"

"We have no idea what you're talking about." Ed shook his head, and he held up his automail blade as he got into a battle stance.

"You're quite excitable." Kimblee sighed and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Fighting two kids? That's just gonna cause more grief and broken bones than I'm in the mood for."

Manami's eyes widened when they saw Kimblee's hands leave his pockets, and he held up the very same Philosopher's Stone he promised them before.

"I don't have time to play, so I suppose it's time I use this."

Ed suddenly charged. Kimblee reached to grab him, but he was too quick. Kimblee swiped again and Ed quickly bent backwards to dodge it, but kicked Kimblee's hand to knock the stone out of his hand. Manami watched the stone fall over the railing into man-made hole in the middle of the room, then smiled to Ed.

"Now you've pissed me off!" Kimblee yelled, preparing to clap his hands together.

"Hey, Kimblee!" Manami quickly waved a fan and Kimblee cried out as his right palm suddenly spurted out blood.

"?!" Ed looked over to Manami in surprise. How did she do that?!

"What did you—" Kimblee clutched the wrist of his bleeding hand, seeing a gash severing the transmutation circle in his palm.

"You wanted to know what my alchemy could do, didn't you?" Manami smirked. "Thought I'd give you a taste!"

"And now you can't transmute!" Ed also smirked. "So come quietly—"

"You think I'm done?" Kimblee asked with a laugh that sounded maniacal. "You'll never learn! You are so intent not to kill, when it only hands your enemies an opening!" His smirk stretched from ear to ear.

"That naivete… will be your downfall!"

Kimblee opened his mouth to reveal a sphere in between his teeth. He held open his uninjured hand as it fell out of his mouth, and once it gleamed crimson in the light… Manami realized.

Ed was too close to Kimblee.

"ED, MOVE!" Manami barely had time to wave her fan before there was an explosion the moment the sphere touched Kimblee's palm. She tried her best to deflect it with her wind alchemy, but the explosion overpowered her gust of wind… and everything went black.

"Ngh…" Manami's eyes cracked open to see a bright light shining down on her, though dimmed through heavy clouds of dust floating around.

What happened? Oh yeah…

Manami's guess was that Kimblee's explosion destroyed the floor beneath them, and they had fallen down the shaft. A loud THUD quickly made her jump to and quickly move to sit up, but her head swayed as a surge of pain coursed through her skull.

With a groan, Manami held her head in her hand to ride out the throbbing pain for a moment before attempting to move… she was sure to start with wiggling just her fingers and toes, then went to pat over her arms and legs. She could feel everything, alright, because it all hurt. Her head hurt the most.

She pulled her hand off her head and looked down to see that it was covered with blood.

"That would explain the pain..."

Manami groaned again as she slowly looked around, noticing at that moment a giant steel beam falling from above, only a few feet away from her. It landed with the same THUD that she heard earlier, jolting her.

She needed to move. But more importantly… where was Ed?

"Ed?" She called out as she tried to stand up, but she quickly fell back down once her right ankle crumpled under her weight. The pain brought her to tears, but she knew she had to move out of the way of falling debris. With several groans, she pushed herself onto her hands and knees and began to crawl.

"Ed..!" She called again, her voice strained.

There was no sight of him anywhere, and it was eerily quiet…

"Y-You better be alright..!" Manami croaked, clenching her teeth hard as her ankle kept throbbing painfully. She felt like she really wasn't going anywhere and her kneecaps were already starting to hurt from crawling on the concrete.

"Ed, come on..!" Manami felt herself getting dizzy. Granted, she didn't know how much she was bleeding from her head.

She decided that she was far away enough from the gaping hole where debris was dropping from, and allowed herself to turn over so that she could sit and lean back against a pile of debris.

Just a small rest… for just a moment.

But when Manami opened her eyes and turned her head, she saw a color that stood out from the blacks and grays she had only seen up until this point.

Red…

At first, she recognized it as the red of Edward's coat, for she could see the black cross… but Manami didn't have a moment to sigh in relief when she saw another steel beam, like the one she had seen fall earlier... sticking straight out of the coat.

Below him was even more red… and Manami's eyes widened in horror when she finally realized it: Ed was laying face-first in a pool of his own blood… and the steel beam was sticking through his body.

"Ed!" Manami shrieked, panic rising in her as she went to push herself up and hobble over to him, ignoring the pain in her ankle. She fell a few feet away from him and grunted as she half-crawled, half-dragged herself over to him until she could reach to grab the shoulder of his coat.

"Edward!" She yelled, shaking him desperately. He wasn't responding.

Her heart was pounding in her chest. There was no way he was…

"Edward Elric!" Her voice cracked as she yelled his name again, her other hand reaching to grip his other shoulder so that she could try to pull him up.

The pool of blood underneath him was only growing bigger, and with each passing second of silence, the reality was hitting her harder and harder.

Edward Elric… was dead.

In this moment, Manami was entirely alone… no Ed, no Al, no Winry… she was just as alone as she was, the night she ran away from Resembool.

"... what… what do I do..?" Manami whispered, as her shoulders started to shake.

She hunched over Ed, her forehead resting against his shoulder blades. She could only let out a choked sob as the tears started to stream down her cheeks and onto Ed's back.

"Someone help…" She whimpered.

"Someone… anyone…"

And she called for the only person she could think of…

"Alphonse…!"