He started walking towards the building and everyone followed behind him. The guards had clearly ran in after Barry because no one was there to stop them. The halls were busy with people who were clearly panicked by Barry's entrance. Mustang but he immediately began barking out orders. He was quite good at that.
"All personnel must evacuate immediately." A soldier approached the group clearly confused by both Barry's and the team's entrances.
"Uh, Colonel," the man began to say. He probably was going to question Mustang's authority to be going into the lab.
"That man is a deranged killer. My men will handle this. Order your guards to seal off the exits." Mustang had such an authoritative presence that the soldier just saluted and agreed to do so.
The team continued down the stairs into a dark hallway. There was no sign of whether Barry went left or right.
"How the Hell are we supposed to find him?" Jean was aggravated. Everyone was thinking the same thing, but Mustang as the leader said it.
"We're gonna have to split up." He was looking directly at Hawkeye when he said this. Cassie got the impression that the two of them were already on the same page as to how the group should be split.
"Yes, sir."
"So who's watching out for the kid?" Cassie asked gesturing to Alphonse.
"Hey! I can take care of myself. It's nearly impossible to hurt me and I can do alchemy." Cassie turned to him with a stern look on her face.
"Nearly impossible isn't good enough. I don't want to be the one explaining to Fullmetal that we stood by and allowed you to get in harm's way. We don't know what we're facing so if we are splitting up, we need to be smart about it."
"Keynes and Hawkeye will go with Alphonse. This way Hawkeye can cover while Keynes is on the offensive. Havoc will cover for me." Mustang said while looking at Cassie. She could have sworn there was a look of respect on his face.
"Ok," she replied to him. The teams went their separate way and Cassie began keeping an eye out for any movement.
"Keynes, are you prepared for alchemy?" Hawkeye asked quietly.
"I'm always ready," Cassie replied. "But I've got another trick up my sleeve." She reached into her coat pocket a took out the hilt of a sword attached to a block of metal.
"What is that?" Alphonse asked.
"A sword."
"Uh, what?" The kid asked. Cassie grinned. She had acquired a few new skills while at Briggs.
"When did you take up sword fighting?" Hawkeye either already had figured out the sword riddle or just did not care.
"When I transferred to Briggs, the Major General decided I would make a good sparring partner. I think I almost died a few times in the beginning but I adapted." Hawkeye laughed at the thought of Major General Armstrong attacking Cassie when she was only a beginner swordsman. Cassie shrugged off her coat and placed it on the ground.
"A transmutation circle!" Alphonse was surprised to see a circle embroidered on the inside of her coat. Hawkeye had stopped walking too and was standing alert while Cassie placed the sword hilt on the coat. Placing her hands on the coat, she focused her energy into transmuting the metal. The energy was palpable as the block of metal stretched out into a full length sabre. She picked up the sword with her left hand and swung it around a few times to make sure it was weighted correctly.
"Alright, let's continue," Cassie said to Hawkeye while putting her coat back on.
The group only walked a little further when they noticed a door opened to another room. Hawkeye looked back towards Cassie who nodded her head and the two walked in with with weapons drawn while Alphonse followed behind. The first thing to catch Cassie's eye was the large ornate door. It had alchemic writing and symbols on it. She walked close to the door to look closer but was distracted by a horrible rotting smell. Next to her, Barry was standing over his own dead body. Cassie and Hawkeye gagged at the overwhelming scent. Alphonse lucked out in the moment by not having a body because no one would want to smell this.
"Sorry," Barry said remorsefully, "but you got here too late. Look at this mess. My body is damn near entirely decayed. I guess a body just can't keep up with someone else's soul shoved inside it."
The sound of footsteps caused everyone to turn towards the door. A sultry woman in a dark red dress was standing there. On her chest was an ouroboros tattoo. Barry laughed.
"I was wondering when you were going to show up, Lusty."
"You're such a handful Number 66, and it's sad to see you armour boy and the Snow Alchemist here. Talk about a set back. It was bad enough killing one candidate, now two more have to go."
"Candidate? How do you know who I am?" Cassie asked.
"Dear Jean always loved talking about. It really put a damper on our dates. He was a looker though. It was sad to see him go." The woman had a malicious glint to her eyes. Cassie had a horrible feeling in her stomance.
"What do you mean 'see him go'?" Cassie paused thinking about what she had said earlier. "Who was this first candidate?" The woman laughed at her.
"Oh not Havoc. He may be a charmer but he's not what we're looking for." Before Cassie could respond, Barry rushed forward.
"That's enough from you, Lust. All I want is to hear your screaming." He charged at her with his cleaver. Cassie watched in horror as the woman's fingernails extended and sliced Barry to bits. What kind of monster was she?
"Now where were we? Right, I was about to send Lieutenant Hawkeye to join her superior." Hawkeye gasped and Cassie felt herself go into shock. Havoc and Mustang could not be dead. No. Her hand was shaking and she was frozen to her spot as Lust walked towards them.
"Wait a minute. So when you said you already had to kill a candidate…It can't be. You didn't." Hawkeye's emotions were coming undone as Lust kept approaching with a smirk on her face.
"You bitch!" Hawkeye screamed as she started firing her gun at the woman.
Cassie watched as her companion unloaded two rounds into the woman and was horrified to see the woman heal on the spot. Cassie charged forward slicing her sword through the woman. Lust stumbled backwards as her left arm fell off. Cassie raised her sword to aim for the right one but before she could, Lust aimed an attack at her with her nails. Going on the defensive, Cassie blocked the blow of the nails. Unfortunately, Lust's left arm had regenerated and Cassie jumped to the side trying to avoid the attack from that arm. Cassie let out a scream as nails pierced her left forearm causing her to stumble to her knees and drop her sword. She was saved from further attack by Hawkeye unleashing another round of bullets into the woman. Cassie knew this was the last round Hawkeye had. She looked over and saw the blonde woman crying. The realization of everything hit Cassie. Mustang and Havoc were dead. She was staring death in the face along with Hawkeye and Alphonse. God, Alphonse. He was just a kid.
"Are you done trying?" Lust asked casually as she stood up in perfect condition again. Hawkeye fell to her knees in tears. In a last ditch effort, Cassie started drawing a transmutation circle with the blood from her wound. Her hand was shaking causing her to slowly draw the circle.
"Such a sad and weak creature. Another typical human."Cassie momentarily stopped what she was doing. Alphonse stepped in front of Hawkeye. Cassie and Lust watched in shock as he transmuted a spear with no circle. When had he acquired that skill? Had he attempted human transmutation again? No. She knew that could not be the case. Lust easily disarmed the boy.
"Go, Alphonse!" Cassie yelled.
"No! I won't leave you two! I'm sick of watching people die! I can't just sit back and take it anymore! I won't let anyone else get hurt when I can protect them! " This brought Cassie to her breaking point and she felt the tears run down her face. She knew how he felt. She had not been there to protect Jean or Mustang. Alphonse's resolve gave her the push to finish the transmutation circle. As she did, she noticed a figure in the doorway which looked familiar.
"Well said," Mustang said as he raised his hand. "I couldn't agree more." Knowing what was about to come, Cassie quickly transmuted a wall in front of her and saw Alphonse do the same in front of himself and Hawkeye. She felt the heat of flames surge past her.
"You should've bled to death by now!" Lust panted. Cassie could not see her, but the woman sounded in pain.
"I seared the wound closed. I came close to passing out from the pain." Another blast of flames rushed past Cassie. She felt hope resurge. Mustang was alive. Havoc could be too. The room was filled with Lust's agonized screams as Mustang repeatedly burnt her to a crisp.
Suddenly, the screaming stopped. Cassie's ears were ringing but she could tell that Lust was murmuring something to Mustang. Cassie grabbed her sword for good measure and peered out from behind her barricade in time to watch Lust disintegrate. Mustang fell onto his back.
"Colonel!" Hawkeye yelled and both she and Cassie ran towards him. Cassie herself stumbled and almost fell. The adrenaline had worn off and her body was feeling the strain of everything it had been through.
"Are you alright?" Mustang asked Hawkeye.
"Forget about me, we need to get you some help." The Colonel smiled and turned to Alphonse.
"Thanks, Alphonse. Thank you for looking after my subordinate." He then turned to Cassie who was leaning on her sword as a crutch.
"Keynes, you've grown up." The two shared weak smiles. "Havoc...I seared his wounds. He was unconscious when I left him."
"I need to go to him," she said as she started moving towards the door.
"You're in no shape!" Hawkeye protested, but it was too late and Cassie noticed the room spinning as her legs gave out.