Yay! Ch. 2! I'm so excited to get started on the next chapter. I have quite a few ideas to work with and I think they're going to turn out very well. Anyway, you know the drill. I do not own FMA or the characters/storyline. I DO own my OCs and minor changes to the storyline. Enjoy!

"Damn it, are you kidding?!" were Allister's first words upon arriving at the First Branch of the Central Library, which was now a pile of rubble.

Kaia gagged a bit, "The air stinks here. I can smell all the ashes!"

With a dejected sigh, he stated, "Might as well see if anything survived. Wait here."

Kaia stared blankly at his back as he made his way to the building. After a few paces, she began to follow. She could sense more chi in the building, most likely his colleagues. Strangely though, she sensed the chi of only two of three bodies.

By the time she reached the steps, she could hear their voices more clearly,

"It doesn't look like anything's survived…"

"Even if it does, we need to see if the notes survived!"

"Brother, please! Calm down!"

Her brow furrowed before she climbed the steps and entered the building. Edward and Allister were searching through the ashes. Major Armstrong and Alphonse were off to the side, so she decided to head their way.

"This is quite a mess, isn't it?"

"Hmm? Oh, young lady. You really shouldn't be in here…"

"Don't worry, I'm with him," she jabbed a thumb at Allister, who developed a tick mark.

"And I told you to wait outside!"

"Well, as you can see, I'm not a patient person!"

The major and Alphonse watched the exchange with curiosity. The latter tilted his head, pondering why she looked so familiar…

"Um, excuse me, miss? Who are you?"

She craned her neck to the armored boy and grinned. She stuck her hand out, "Kaia. Kaia Conrad-Wu. And you are…?"

His armor rattled a bit in surprise, finally meeting the girl he had heard a lot about. And from what he could look over, he could see what Allister meant. It was almost too easy to see what she had lost…

Kaia's face turned concerned, "Hey, you okay?"

"O-Oh, sorry! Yeah, I'm okay. I'm Alphonse Elric. It's nice to meet you," he replied and let her hand grasp his to shake.

"Likewise," she turned curious as she felt his hand. "Wow, your hand is huge! Is this armor I'm feeling?"

"Uh, yeah. It is…"

"Well, it's no use. There's nothing here but ash. Everything we were looking for is gone," Edward sighed in frustration.

He and Allister rejoined the group and only just then noticed the newest addition, "Hey, who the hell are you?"

To keep things short and peaceful, Allister decided to get the formalities out of the way,

"Everyone, this is my sister, Kaia. Kaia, you already know Alphonse. This is Edward Elric and Major Armstrong."

They were interrupted by a woman's voice,

"Major Armstrong!"

Two soldiers had appeared, both saluting. Major Armstrong acknowledged them,

"Ah, Second Lieutenant Maria Ross and Sergeant Brosh. To what do we owe this pleasure?"

Ross answered, "You have been ordered to return to the command center, sir."

"We'll be taking over supervision of Edward Elric and his brother effective immediately," Sergeant Brosh continued.

"Hmm. Very well, he's all yours."

"What is this?! Just when I think I'm home free, they saddle me with more bodyguards?! This is getting old!"

I'm so freaking bored! thought Kaia as she ran her fingers through her hair.

It turned out luck was on their side and a woman known as Sheska had a perfect memorization of the notes they were looking for. Unfortunately, it would take time for her to copy them all, so they couldn't do much but wait.

That was two days ago, and now they were gathered outside of her home in hopes of hearing some news as soon as possible. It seemed that everyone was getting impatient and on edge.

"How long is this going to take?!" Edward sighed loudly, clearly frustrated at having to wait even longer.

"Just be patient, brother. Sheska's doing the best she can right now. We can't just rush her."

The alchemist let out another loud sigh and let his head fall back against the wall. Allister let out a sigh of his own,

"I get that we'll want to know it's finished as soon as possible, but do we really have to wait right here all day? Couldn't we go do something else to pass the time?"

"That's probably for the best," Ross concurred. "Maybe you should use this time to rest."

"That's all we've been doing for the past five days," Edward whined.

Kaia, now tiring of his complaining, simply stated, "Well sitting in front of her home and bellyaching about it isn't going to make her work any faster. Just find something to distract you and then we'll look over the notes when they're ready."

"What do you mean 'we'?" he grumbled. "It's not like you could do much, anyway. Even with the notes, you can't exactly read, so you're kind of useless in this situation…"

Edward yelped as three little icicles flew past his head, piercing the stone wall he was leaning against. Everyone glanced at Kaia with a mix of shock and fear. Her right arm was raised and sparks danced off of her glove.

Her expression was furious as she hissed, "Shut up, you shrimp!"

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING SHRIMP?! YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE! HOW THE HELL WOULD YOU KNOW?!

"Brother-!"

"I don't need to see! Your chi is telling me all I need to, you little flea!"

"Kaia!"

"DON'T CALL ME LITTLE!"

"DON'T CALL ME USELESS!"

"Okay, let's just calm down," Brosh tried to intervene, but was quickly shut down by the glares from the alchemists sent his way. "Okay, forget I said anything!"

Kaia grunted as she felt a harsh tug on her braid, making her fall right on her back. Astra's scaly feet rested gently yet firmly on her wrists. Her handler growled in anger as she squirmed and struggled to get free.

"Um, shouldn't we do something?" Ross whispered to Allister, figuring her brother would know what to do.

Instead, Allister shook his head, "Nah. One of the behaviors of these particular chimeras is to protect their handlers, and that includes preventing spats before they happen if possible. She could tell Kaia was angry and is just holding her down till she cools off."

By that time, Kaia's struggling had died down and she was now panting heavily. She lifted her head and narrowed her eyes, "You got lucky this time, little man."

Edward's teeth ground together as he snarled, "Really? I'm not the one who's helplessly pinned to the ground!"

She scowled and renewed her efforts to break free. The situation had grown tense and it wasn't getting any better. One person had decided that it was time to end it.

"Okay, ENOUGH!" Allister exclaimed in an irritated tone. "Both of you, stop it! You're acting like children!"

"Tell that to her! She's the one who started it!"

"Like hell I did! All I said was to find something to do! You're the one who insulted me first!"

"STOP IT!" Allister cut in. "Kaia, you can't just attack people out of nowhere even if they've insulted you."

She glared at her brother and she could definitely feel in Edward's chi that he was quite smug. That smugness was diminished as he continued,

"Ed, I don't care if she did attack you first. You do not talk to a lady, much less my sister, like that! You're a military professional, so act like it! Are we all clear?"

…

"I am if he is…" Kaia muttered, finally calm from her second tantrum.

Edward grunted, but conceded, "Fine. Let's just go."

Astra released her handler and stepped back, allowing her to get back to her feet. The alchemist dusted off her shirt, crossing her arms with a huff as she reluctantly followed the group.

"You handled that pretty well," Alphonse whispered to Allister. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

"It was practically drilled through my skull by my dad. He's in the military as well and is very serious about discipline."

Kaia was sat against Astra's side as she "watched" Edward and Alphonse spar. The party had relocated to a nearby field, where Edward got the idea for he and his brother to train to kill time.

"Tell me again why I can't spar, too?"

"I don't want you getting hurt," Allister stated simply.

She pouted, "That's not fair! I can handle myself plenty well in a fight!"

"Would it really kill you to sit still for just one day?"

"…Yes."

The older man sighed in defeat, "Fine! You can spar, but only with Alphonse. After that spat earlier, I don't trust you fighting with Ed yet."

Silently cheering, she exclaimed, "I'll take it! He's the better fighter, anyway. Hey, Alphonse! Mind if I take a shot at you when you guys are done?"

"Uh, sure!" he answered, actually finishing a session and making their way back. "You know how to fight?"

"Mhmm!" she grinned. "I've been trained in a lot of forms of martial arts. I'm very good if I do say so myself."

"Yeah, right! Prove it," Edward challenged. He could at least believe that she was adept in navigating, but certainly not in combat!

Kaia's cheeks puffed out in annoyance, "Okay, I will!"

She and Alphonse backed away and took starting positions. The rest of the group watched on, somewhat concerned and intrigued all at once.

"So, are we only relying on our fighting skills or are we bringing alchemy into this?"

"Nope. Just a normal fight. You can have the first move, Kaia."

"Aw, that's so sweet of you, Alphonse," she smiled sweetly.

Then she vanished, or at least that's what it looked like to the rest of them. Alphonse cried out as his chest was hit by Kaia's foot. She smirked as she kicked off of him with her other foot, pushing him back quite a few feet and nearly knocking him over.

She landed, her arms and legs still alert and ready to strike, "It was sweet, but it won't help you in this fight."

Having gotten over his shock, he charged to land his strike, "You're fast! I didn't even see you coming."

"Thanks!" she grunted, dodging and blocking his strikes and throwing her own. "You're not so bad yourself!"

All of the strikes were thrown and it was all a blur. Alphonse had the advantage in a larger size and strength, but Kaia had the advantage in speed, a smaller size, and maneuverability. Neither of them had even landed an effective blow on the other because of them. In the end, it looked like it could go either way.

Alphonse threw a strike towards Kaia's shoulder, which she dodged. She grabbed onto his arm and pulled him down before sweeping her leg at his feet. This caused him to tumble to the ground, but he used the proximity to his advantage. He grabbed her by her other arm and threw her away from him.

This caught her off guard, making her yelp and stumble back before falling to the ground. Alphonse charged at her, using her stupor to land another move. However, she could sense him coming and swung her leg up, landing a strong, solid kick on his shoulder…

…at least, that's where she was aiming.

Instead, his helmet flew right off of his armor and high into the air. It flew farther and farther away until it plummeted down into a large meadow of tall grass.

"AHH! My head!" he panicked with his hands scrambling over the place his helmet once was.

"AL!" Edward cried out, immediately rushing to his brother's side. He threw a glare at Kaia, "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Alphonse, I'm so sorry!" Kaia panicked with him, quickly standing up. "I only meant to hit your shoulder! Here, I'll go get it!"

She took off towards the grass, disappearing in it within seconds. To anybody else, finding Al's helmet in this would be as difficult as finding as finding a needle in a haystack. As for Kaia, it was little to no trouble to pinpoint its location.

Tucking it under her shoulder, she sprinted out of the grass and back to the suit of armor. She slightly panted as she held out the helmet,

"Here, I found it!"

"Oh, thanks Kaia," he gratefully took it back and reattached it.

"Okay, I think that's enough for one day!" Allister interrupted. "Good work, guys."

"Already? Damn…" Kaia looked disappointed, but then grinned and waved at Alphonse, "We'll finish this later, Al. I can't wait to see what else you've got!"

He agreed, "Okay, sure. Maybe we can use our alchemy too!"

She laughed, "You're an alchemist, too?! That ought to make it more interesting!"

As they continued to walk back together, Edward and Allister came back at their own pace. There was just something he had to know,

"That was impressive. I'm not gonna lie, I thought all that stuff about 'blindsight' was just a bunch of crap, but the way she fought and found Al's helmet like that, there's no way she could be bluffing. Either that or she's faking being blind."

"Trust me, she's not. I was there when she had her accident and she even has an official diagnosis."

Edward stopped and asked, "If it's not a bluff, then how the hell does she do it? I've never heard of anything like that."

Allister had stopped as well and explained, "Let's see…the closest thing I can properly explain it is like this: have you ever felt like when one of your senses is limited that your other senses sharpen, like your hearing and touch when it's too dark to see?"

At his nod, he continued, "Well, that's what blindsight is. The senses are raised beyond normal limitations. It's certainly one way to overcome blindness."

"That's incredible!" Edward could not hide the awe in his tone. Despite her arrogance about it, which really pissed him off, he couldn't say it wasn't an impressive ability.

"It is indeed," the older man agreed. "Like I said, it's only a comparison, but it's the only way I can really comprehend it. Blindsight is something that's more of a instinctual thing and Kaia is a very instinctual person, so it doesn't surprise me that she took to it so easily."

"Hey! Are you two coming or what?!" Kaia shouted at them.

"Coming!" Allister called back. As Edward began to walk, he was stopped, "Hey, Ed. Could you do me a favor?"

The younger man looked up at him curiously as he continued, "I know there are some things Kaia absolutely can't do, but for her sake, please don't use words like 'useless' or 'helpless'. Even if it's true, I think she's just really insecure about it."

Edward heaved a sigh, "Fine. I guess I can see that."

"Thanks. Just one other thing. Don't tell her you're that impressed by blindsight. It'll only fuel her ego."

Finally, after three more days, the wait was over. Sheska had finished copying the notes and the alchemists were more than eager to see what it said.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of notes and they were encrypted into recipes. It was determined that it was going to be difficult, but they took on the challenge anyway. While a majority of the reading was done by the boys, Kaia had managed to find a decent number of alchemical books written in braille with plenty of useful information.

They were at the library all day, every day, for the next ten days. Each time, they were closer and closer to the answers they were seeking. Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, near the end of the tenth day, they found it…

"TO HELL WITH IT!"

Ross and Brosh, who were standing guard outside the room, peeked in to investigate the outburst. All four of the alchemists were surrounded with books and papers scattered everywhere

It was Brosh who spoke up first, "What did you guys do to this place?!"

Ross then added, "Don't get angry because you can't crack it. Throwing things isn't going to help."

"We did crack it. We cracked the code and decrypted the notes," Alphonse responded, though he sounded quite distraught.

"Really? But that's a good thing!"

"There's nothing good about it, damn it! This is the devil's research! Dr. Marcoh was right, it's evil!"

"How evil could it really?"

"The main ingredient in a philosopher's stone is human life. Even making one stone would require many human sacrifices…"

There was a tense silence that settled over everyone in the room. Brosh and Ross were both choked up from the news.

"It's disgusting," Kaia hissed. "Who the hell would give permission for research for this to be done?!"

"I don't know," Allister shook his head. "But this is very troubling. Very troubling. It would probably be best to keep this between us for right now."

That was something they could easily agree on.

And that night, the alchemists retired in their respective hotel rooms. It had been a very challenging couple of days and it was clear that they were due a rest. As expected, each of them was still dealing with their new discovery in different ways.

"You know there's no way we can go through with using the philosopher's stone, right?" Allister was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

Kaia, who was spread out on the other bed, was facing away from him as she responded, "You say that like what I said at the library didn't even matter. Of course we can't. I'm not about to try to get back what I want at the expense of other people."

He grinned a little, "I knew that. You're too big of a softie to go through with it."

"Shut the hell up. I'm not soft, I'm just not a psycho."

"Whatever you say," Allister yawned, turning onto his side. "I'm completely exhausted. We'll figure something out in the morning. Good night."

"Night."

The room became quiet aside from the silent snores from the brother and the gentle motion of the ceiling fan. However, Kaia was far too worked-up to find any peace in sleep, no matter how tired she felt.

It had been ten years she had been living the way she had, dealing with no sight and no recollection of her former self. Forced to live in a world where everyone was a stranger to her. She held onto so much hope that the philosopher's stone could change that.

Kaia sighed, "I guess it really would be too good to be true, after all."

"ELRIC BROTHERS! Open up! I know you're in there!"

She shot up in surprise, hearing the loud yet familiar voice along with the loud banging, "Isn't that Major Armstrong?"

"This is the Major!"

"…Okay, that answers that."

Allister hadn't even stirred from the ruckus going on, confirming that he truly was exhausted. This was definitely her cue to check things out.

Kaia made her way down the hall, where the door had already been knocked down. She could sense all the people there, including the Elric brothers, Major Armstrong, and the soldiers Ross and Brosh.

"HOW TRAGIC! To think the legend of the Philosopher's stone could be built on such a terrible secret!"

Edward, who had been sent into a state of shock, suddenly glared at Ross and Brosh. Both looked quite sheepish as they explained,

"We're sorry…"

"It's hard to keep quiet with someone like him."

"Oh, hi Kaia," Alphonse greeted as she trekked towards him. "I hope we didn't wake you or your brother…"

She merely shrugged, "Not like I could sleep, anyway. I'm too antsy."

Meanwhile, Major Armstrong continued with his emotional outburst, "Imagine the military being behind something like this! The truth is more horrible than we bargained for!"

Edward froze, a realization coming to mind, "The truth. That's what Dr. Marcoh said. To find the truth within the truth. What we found was only scratching the surface. There's still more to find. There has to be!"

And so that's what started the researching of anything they could find. Before too long, they had a map of Central spread out on the table. The major had begun to explain,

"Currently, there are four alchemical laboratories that are operational in Central, all of them connected with the government. Marcoh worked in the Third Laboratory, so we should start with that one as the most suspicious."

"Al and I have already been to those labs and nothing big was going on there. Wait. What about this one?" Edward pointed to a building that was marked with a red 'X'.

"The Fifth Laboratory, at least it was designed to be. It's not in use now due to it being structurally unstable," Ross clarified

Edward's eyes hardened, "It's there."

"How can you be so sure?" asked Brosh.

"There's a prison right next to it. And what were the main ingredients needed to make a philosopher's stone?"

An unsettling silence filled the room as they all connected the dots. Kaia, with her hands folded, nodded,

"Ah, so what better cover up for making philosopher's stones than by using criminals already on death row?"

He nodded, "Yeah. They could easily be recorded as executions."

Ross shuddered at the thought, "Using prisoners to make a philosopher's stone…"

"Don't look at me like that. I don't like talking about it, either…"

Alphonse couldn't help but add, "Other prisons could be used for this, too. I wonder if the government is involved at all."

Both Brosh and Ross looked positively uncomfortable with all of the information, "I don't like this at all…"

"Which is why we said to keep quiet about it!"

Major Armstrong sighed and rolled up the map, "This has the potential of becoming a political nightmare. I'll look into all of this. Until then, officers, don't speak of this to anyone."

They saluted in affirmation, "Sir!"

"And you, Elric brothers, behave yourselves!"

They yelped at the accusation, shrinking down as the major continued,

"Don't think I don't know what you're up to! You were thinking of sneaking into this building and snooping around, weren't you?!"

"NO, NO! WE PROMISE!"

"Yeah, right."

As expected, the brothers had their minds made up ahead of time and not even the major could change it. After a while, when they were sure Ross and Brosh thought they were asleep, Edward and Alphonse made their move.

Getting down from the hotel room window was a bit of a challenge, but they managed to pull it off without alerting anyone.

"Going somewhere, boys?"

The brothers jumped and yelped as they turned to the source of the voice. Kaia was leaning against the stone wall with her arms crossed.

"Kaia? What are you doing out here?" Alphonse nervously asked.

"Probably the same thing you are: to go check out the Fifth Laboratory."

Edward's shocked face turned sour fast as he protested, "NO! Not happening! Just go away!"

"Brother! That's rude! And keep quiet or they'll hear us!" Alphonse whisper-shouted. It was then that Kaia sighed,

"Look, I know that we got off on the wrong foot and I'm sorry for being so hostile, but I want to know what's going on just as badly as you do. Let me come with you to the Fifth Laboratory."

Still, Edward declined, "Forget it. It's already going to be dangerous enough. We don't need you getting in our way."

A tick mark appeared on the female's forehead, "You're making me regret my apology already. I regret it so much, I might just let it slip about where you both are to your guards…"

"….You wouldn't."

"I so would! Believe it or not, I can handle myself. And like it or not, more help means we can get more information. Something's going on and I want to know just as much as you do. It'll be like I'm not even there."

"Ugh, fine! Just keep quiet and keep up!"

Kaia smirked and pushed herself off the wall, "Great. Let's get going!"

Fortunately, climbing the wall surrounding the building was quite easy for the trio. Now, after checking around the building, it seemed that there was almost no way to get in.

"They're not taking any chances, are they?" Edward sighed, still looking around for a possible way in.

Kaia shuddered a bit, "Something's definitely off with this place. There's something inside that's making my skin crawl."

Edward finally found something: an air vent. And looking at the size, it seemed perfect for him to fit through.

"Over here," he waved them over. "Looks like this is our only way in. Give me a boost, Al."

After opening the vent, he went to climb in, "Al, you need to wait here."

"You're fine on your own?"

"Whether I'm fine on my own or not isn't the issue. You're too big to get through here," Edward explained as he started crawling through the tight space.

"It's not like I asked to get this big…" Alphonse sat on the ground, completely dejected.

Kaia patted his shoulder, "Don't worry, Al. I'll go in and see if I can find a way to let you get inside, too."

"Okay…" he muttered as she used his armor to climb inside the vent as well.

It didn't take long for her to catch up to the older Elric brother. Fortunately, she was thin enough that she fitted inside just as well as he did.

"Damn, it's even tighter in here than I thought. Good thing I have such a small body."

…

"OH NO! I JUST CALLED MYSELF A TINY LITTLE PIPSQUEAK!"

Her hands were clamped over her ears at the reverberation of his yelling, "Dear god, shut up! I'm already blind, I don't need to go deaf, too!"

"'It'll be like I'm not even here' my ass," Edward grumbled, continuing to push forward.

Finally, he found an opening and kicked it open. The two dropped down from the opening and observed their surroundings. The area was old, dusty, and covered with grime, but there was still electricity powering the lights.

"There are lights on. 'Not currently in use.' Who are they trying to fool?" Edward scoffed. "This is it, alright."

Kaia nodded, "I'm going to try to see if there's any way to let Alphonse in."

"Fine. I'll keep going. Stay safe and don't do anything stupid."

"Likewise."