A/N: I'm so sorry for my long absence, school and some of my other works unfortunately took away all my attention, but I will try to update a bit more regularly. :) Oh and while browsing through all my notes to finish this little chapter, I stumbled upon an event I wrote which will take place after…a few major things will happen and the title of the note was just "Ed pees on Ling" and a bit of text I wrote underneath with Ling's speaking paragraph, "My foot stinks," and…I just burst out laughing, I knew at what time in the story it will take place and I just lost it lmao. Right, story, sorry, my weird shenanigans. :P
ANSWERS TO REVIEWS:
MorbidVisionary: T_T Thank you so much, it's so nice to hear about me doing something right :3 Hehe, honestly I'm always insecure about characterizations here.
Enjoy!
Shadow of a Doubt
Bradley's eyebrow arched up until his hairline as he scanned the piece of paper the delivery man was holding out for him to sign, "I have requested for…what?"
The man flipped the chart and read the exact order again, "Let's see…one thousand-one-hundred-and-ten dark blue, pleated mini-skirts along with matching belts." He flipped the chart again so it was facing towards Bradley, "If you could please sign this, your next delivery should arrive soon,"
Bradley's brow arched higher, "…Next delivery?"
The man scratched his neck, "Yes, I believe you've asked for the year's infrastructural requests and stats. My colleague from the science department should be delivering them to you soon, they're about three boxes worth of them since last year's forms haven't been done yet,"
Bradley's visible eye twitched, "What exactly is the meaning of-"
A knock sounded at the door and Bradley expelled a sigh, "Enter,"
It was Sheska, who had trouble wheeling in what appeared to be three boxes, "Um, my apologies for intruding sir, but this was sent from the science department," she adjusted her uniform, "It says here that these are the infrastructural requests from last and this year," she nervously adjusted her glasses when she saw Bradley glaring daggers at the boxes, "S-Sir?"
The look of doom immediately vanished, and Bradley smiled instead, signing the form before him quickly, "That's alright, if you will, I would like to personally inspect them," Sheska got the hint and obviously the delivery man as well, since both of them started for the door at the same time.
As soon as they closed it, the frown returned to Bradley's lips, creases and wrinkles deepening on his aged face as the Führer moved around his spacious desk to inspect the delivery more closely. He would worry about the odd skirts later.
Grabbing a knife from his pocket, he sliced open the first box, a plethora of forms greeting him, "Hm…." He lifted the first paper close to his eyes, scanning its contents, "Renovations of laboratories… improved scientific tools…increased salaries…" he set it down, rubbing at his forehead, "Was it an error…" he shook his head, his mind swirling with ideas, "No, the delivery seemed too large for it to be an error in the system, someone with the appropriate authority ordered this." His gaze narrowed.
He would need to make his rounds through the building after lunch and pay a visit to a certain person.
Sheska rose an eyebrow questioningly, "Um…so, you're Riza's friend?" she blinked up at the determined brunette, who was intently scanning the covers of the aged books.
Rebecca flashed her a grin, "You bet I am! Now, Riza said she had a quick errand to run so I'll be helping you with research!" she leaned in to whisper close to the woman's ear, "I'm informed of everything, so update me on what you have already and I'll search the shelves you didn't yet," she winked at Sheska and the smaller woman couldn't help but sigh in appreciation.
Riza Mustang truly was an amazing woma-
"OUT OF MY WAY SUITS! I HAVE BUSINESS TO DO!" a vaguely familiar, loud woman's voice suddenly sounded right outside the door and Rebecca froze in front of her, "HEY! DANNY! DON'T MAKE ME SHOW YOU A NEW MOVE I USE ON ASSHOLES!"
Danny's nervous voice drifted much more quietly to Sheska's ears, "I-I'm very sorry miss L-Lena, but we aren't allowed granting anyone access into the library unless Miss Mustang approves directly!"
Ross' voice was next, "That's right, unfortunately, we will have to ask you to leave,"
A fleeting feeling surged through Sheska, didn't she know the name 'Lena' from somewhere?
"Why you-!"
"Our sincerest apologies of intruding, but please understand, we have an urgent matter to discuss with Lieut. General Mustang," this was Lan Fan's voice, she knew her.
Sheska quickly headed for the large double doors, swinging them open and nearly causing both Danny and Maria to stumble from their stiff positions pressed against the wood.
Lena's enraged face greeted her first, "Finally!" her anger slowly dissipated when she saw Sheska, "Oh, hey, Sheska,"
Maria's eyes narrowed at how calm the previously violent woman got and muttered close to Danny's ear behind her hand, "Isn't this Greed's girlfriend?"
Danny trembled, terrified from the suspicious look Lena sent him and he violently nodded his head in answer to his partner's question, holding her shoulder in a death grip.
"Uhm…" Sheska looked around, spotting a few familiar faces among the unusual bunch of women, "Wait, Miss Lan Fan, Miss Mei as well?" she blinked, her eyes zeroing in on Winry smiling sheepishly, "Um, I'm really sorry but I don't know you,"
Winry squeezed her arm through both Lan Fan and Mei, shaking hands with a bewildered Sheska, "Uh, hi! I'm very sorry to barge in like this, I'm Winry Rockbell, you may have heard of my mechanic shop?" she grinned proudly, discreetly slipping her card into Sheska's hand, "We get anything fixed!"
Sheska stared at the card, then at the other women, "Um…"
Lena sighed, "She is Ed's girl," ignoring the spluttered, nervous denials from Winry at the back, the taller woman looked down at Sheska, "Anyway, sorry to bother you Sheska, but we seriously need to talk to Riza," the serious look in the brunette's eyes was what prompted Sheska to do what she did then.
She shared a look with Danny and Maria over her shoulder, before beckoning the women into the library quickly, "Let's talk inside," she ushered a stunned Rebecca inside as well.
"If Riza comes back, tell her to come inside immediately!" both Danny and Maria nodded dumbly at the cute librarian's order, before the small woman shut the doors closed.
"….Was that…a dream?" Danny blinked slowly, scratching his head.
Maria sighed, "I don't think so…I don't dream of violently screaming women often,"
Danny just shot her a look.
Sheska took a deep breath, steadying herself on the double doors until she turned around to address the group she found herself with.
Just how many unusual friends did Riza even have? For such a serious woman, her friends were quite the opposite.
Well…she had married Roy after all…
Lena and Rebecca were looking at each-other curiously, "Aren't you the single friend Riza often talks about?" Lena's tone seemed innocent and good-natured enough but that certainly hit a nerve in Rebecca.
"….I'll let you know, I've been to many dates before!" she waved her finger at Lena's perplexed face, "And aren't you the violent woman accused of domestic abuse?" she arched an eyebrow, hands on hips.
Lena's eyes nearly bugged out of her head, "What?! I never hit Greed enough to be classified as domestic abuse! Excuse me! And I never even set foot into court!" her fist shook, "Just what sort of stories have you heard about me?! I'm a pacifist at heart!" she rested her hand over her heart as if wounded.
At that, Lan Fan, Winry and Mei all grimaced.
Sheska tried moving closer to diffuse the situation, "Uh, please ladies if we could calm down and-"
Rebecca jabbed her finger right above Lena's collarbone, "Excuse you, you started it with the single thing, martial artist!"
Lena barked back viciously, "Was I wrong?! Sorry I didn't know your name so the next best thing that popped to memory was that! Blame my boyfriend's weird selective memory and tendency to put nicknames on people…and his contagious habits! At least I didn't give you a nickname yet!"
Rebecca pouted, "I wouldn't bet that pretty little-"
"Enough!" Mei's surprisingly booming voice shut them both up, causing Lena to stiffen straight as a board.
"….S-Sorry Mei," she coughed into her fist, significantly calming down, "Apologies, we started off on the wrong foot, but it's really urgent," Lena fixed Rebecca with a serious look and the woman relented with an exasperated sigh.
"Alright, alright, why did you come here and start a ruckus for?" it was thankfully Lan Fan who spoke next, much calmer than her companions.
"We came to gather information about the certain Homunculi Ling and the others are battling against on the front lines," she shared a look with her friends before looking down at Sheska, "We are offering our assistance, but in return we require your cooperation as well," she bowed at the waist, her posture straight and respectful, "Please,"
Rebecca smiled, "Now that's how you ask for help," she patted Lan Fan on the shoulder so the woman straightened, "I could do without the bow though, we're all friends here," she gave Lena a friendly smile and the brunette chuckled, nodding.
Winry sighed, "So much for being subtle when we enter military facilities…" she shot Lena a disapproving look.
The brunette crossed her arms, "What? I tried, right? It's just…there's just something about Ross that…ugh! I think it's the mole, okay?"
Winry deadpanned, "You mean the beauty mark on her face?"
Lena laughed, "Ha! Beauty my ass! Whoever came up with that probably ate alphabet soup with a side dish of bull!" she pondered her own words for a moment, before smiling, "Oh, that's a good one, I think Greed will find it hilarious,"
Lan Fan blinked, "You…tell each-other the creative insults you come up with for other people?"
The martial artist frowned, "Lan Fan, please, I'm a lady of culture. They're creative descriptions regarding their attitude and personality," she smiled proudly, adjusting the brown straps on her shoulders holding her gun and knife.
The bookworm of the team timidly called out, "Can we continue with the research please? Riza will get here soon,"
Lena blinked as if a thought suddenly hit her, "Oh, yeah, where is the sharpshooter anyway?"
"And you're saying this information is certain?" Riza scanned the contents of the scribbled information on the piece of paper and couldn't believe it.
A puff of smoke circled through the air before it vanished, "It's our best bet and our only reliable lead. It also connects the dots of the riddle if you think about it," madame Christmas glanced to the side, watching her girls do their work before returning her attention to Riza.
Both women stared at the unknown note, handwriting unknown and looking to be purposely scribbled messily, to avoid possibilities of identification.
The only words on it were, "Labs are the answers to your riddle,"
Riza replaced the word 'rooms' with 'labs', but still, "But, the riddle says four rooms are usable, not five," as far as she knew, Laboratory 5 was shut down.
Madame Christmas grinned and waggled her finger playfully, "Ah, ah, ah, you should know better missy, you work in the military after all. Just because a room is locked doesn't mean it can't be used," she winked and grinned, "That especially rings true for military facilities. After wars, abandoned buildings were often used as hideouts or the devil's breeding ground, to prevent locals or authorities from finding them, people often barricaded them until they returned or it was safe to use them again without being spied on," she pointed to the paper again, "As far as I remember, wasn't there an incident with Laboratory 5 that caused it's shutdown?"
Riza's brows furrowed in thought for a while, her gaze moving from her glass to the wooden counter, "Seven rooms. Two of them got torn down." Riza drew seven squares and crossed out two of them on the paper, "One got locked and abandoned." She circled the square marked as "locked", "Only four rooms were available for living. How many rooms remained?" she scanned the squares again.
Madame Christmas and Riza shared a look, "Laboratory 5 used to be a biochemical facility, just like the other ones, however, frequent incidents involving unstable dealings with biological matter had forced authorities to shut it down and permanently deactivate it's purpose. People honestly forgot about it since it's been so long out of use," she rose an eyebrow, setting the paper down, "I still don't understand what grandfather tried to tell me, does he know something I don't?" she fixed the older woman with a questioning glance, knowing she would be her best lead for this.
The woman scoffed, coughing out a circular shaped smoke cloud, "Tch, figures the old fart wouldn't mention anything, you all gotta do it yourself," her gaze slid over to Riza again and she leaned in, her voice barely above a whisper, "Don't you know? Locked doors are the ones you open first[A1] ," before she leaned away again and grabbed her glass, refilling it with water.
Riza caught on when madame Christmas shot her a brief but meaningful look, "Thank you madam," she nodded and left change, "I'll be back soon tonight, you said there was some karaoke?" Riza smiled.
The older woman laughed harshly, "Aye, I would be sorely disappointed if you don't come missy," she grinned and winked, waving after Riza had already left.
She looked at the piece of paper and her eyes narrowed, staring at the writing, thinking of the imposter that had impersonated Roy, "…Could it be?"
"Lieutenant General Raven," Bradley smiled amicably at the darker skinned man.
He immediately saluted, "Führer King Bradley, sir,"
"At ease," he nodded and the general relaxed his position, "Am I disturbing you by chance?" he rose an eyebrow, eyeing the suggestive magazine hastily hidden beneath the space underneath the desk.
The gray-haired man laughed, "Of course not sir, I always have time to spare for our great leader,"
Bradley chuckled, "Very well, I have a request if you don't mind,"
Lt. General Raven rose an eyebrow, wondering what it could be.
"What are you doing here?" Riza blinked in stupefied surprise, now not at all surprised by Danny's slightly fearful reaction when he saw her approaching them and Ross' exasperated sigh.
They were here.
Lena's head poked out from behind a bookshelf, "Yo!" she waved, grinning.
Riza smiled, "I see you've made yourself at home," eyeing the three small cups of what she deduced was coffee.
Mei called from somewhere at the front, "That was the second thing she did after we started,"
Riza giggled, "What was the first?"
Winry suddenly sprang forth from beneath a mountain of books, having been buried beneath their weight on the desk she was leaning heavily against, "Annoying us!" she shot the martial artist a peeved look but Lena buried her nose in another book.
Riza sighed, smiling at Sheska, "I'm sorry if they gave you too much trouble,"
Sheska smiled brightly, "Not at all! They were all very helpful, thank you for sending me Miss Catalina to help out too,"
Riza looked around the room, "Where is she?"
"Potty break," Lena yawned and approached the duo, coming to stand before them, holding out a book, "This is interesting," handing the book over to Riza.
The blonde took it wordlessly, opening it on the page Lena had marked, angling it so Sheska had a clear view too.
"The sin of Pride, the first and foremost sin to be born into this world has also been referred to as "Father Sin" due to the fact all the other sins arise from it in the millennia to come. The sin is rumored to be a vicious one, the loss of many but one step closer to the achievement of its ultimate goal."
"Ultimate goal?" Riza looked at Lena.
She shrugged helplessly, "No idea, really, " she rubbed her knuckles together, covered by her red and black fingerless gloves, "World domination? Isn't that what every villain wants?"
Sheska frowned, "Maybe, but we aren't dealing with every day villains, these might as well be supernatural creatures, these so called Homunculi,"
The sharpshooter quickly closed the book, "Speaking of supernatural, I have something to discuss with all of you," Lena moved back to get Lan Fan and Mei, Rebecca just arriving on time through the door.
She greeted her best friend with a large grin and a pat on the shoulder, "Hey you! You've been skipping about lately, huh? Restless without Roy, hm?"
Riza smiled, "I can say the same for you without Havoc,"
And suddenly, the teasing woman was reduced to a speechless mess until after several seconds, she found her voice, "W-Wait, a minute I just said I wanted to go on one date with him! That doesn't mean anything!"
The sniper turned her attention toward the rest of her friends, "Whatever you say Rebecca,"
After hearing an affirmative huff, Riza began to speak, her face a serious mask, "Madame Christmas called, she had a new lead," she could sense everyone's anticipation and nervousness, "We managed to solve the riddle General Grumman wrote, at least we think we did,"
Lan Fan crossed her arms, "The one about the four rooms?"
Riza shook her head, "As it turned out, it were five actually." She remembered madam's words, "Just because a room is locked doesn't mean it can't be used, the same applied here. The rooms in the riddle portrayed the laboratories,"
Sheska's eyes widened, "The laboratories here in the military? But, what does that have to do with anything? How does that help us?"
Riza frowned at the bookish woman in thought, "I think we are supposed to find something there, perhaps clues which may help us in our investigation, after all they were biochemical facilities, there is bound to be something interesting to find there,"
Lena shivered, "Like mutated animals? Mutilated human bodies? Dog and girl hybrids?" another shiver raced down her spine at the absurd possibilities.
Riza's reaction was worse, "We should be prepared for anything,"
Large footsteps, ones reminiscent of a bear lacking claws, left notable imprints along the snowy path all the way from the entrance of Fort Briggs.
"Damn this snow," Buccaneer protectively held his hand in front of his eyes, barely seeing five feet in front of him, "Tch, Drachma sure isn't dumb,"
Of course not, despite their delusional leader, their smart delusional leader, Buccaneer held the hope of not being seen before he could see the enemy, the snowy breeze, a slower snowstorm really, impaired his vision enough to make him move cautiously, something he rarely resorted to unless absolutely necessary.
General Olivier entrusted him with this task, he would not fail, no matter what.
Strengthening his resolve with her face in mind, Buccaneer moved on, spiky boots pushing him onward far easier than any sort of other footwear ever would in this icy land.
There.
It had been brief but enough. A small flickering light had Buccaneer immediately falling flat to the snow-covered earth, eyes trained on the light.
Did the enemy think he was this dumb? That he would fall for their amateur tricks?
Buccaneer scoffed indignantly, crawling along the earth until he mentally calculated to be on the other side of Drachma's supposed base, the opposite side from where the light had come from, which meant he was directly at the enemy's back.
Tactics such as these were used to confuse a wandering soldier waiting to ambush a larger party, the inexperienced soldier would fall straight into a trap by charging forward, thinking the enemy to be doing a mistake where in reality, they would ambush the soldier as soon as they gained sight of him.
But Buccaneer was no fool.
With a grin, he adjusted the automail bear claw on his arm and charged, roaring like the bears he frequently scared off in the woods.
As soon as he saw a shadowy figure, Buccaneer roared and slammed his fist against a solid body, a pained yelp confirming the hit target before Buccaneer jumped back from a spray of bullets and digging up earth and snow with his automail to create brief coverage.
Another from the side, Buccaneer disposed of him easily.
When he advanced forward more, deeper into enemy base, his eyes widened as he stopped dead in his tracks.
It weren't just a few soldiers.
It was a squadron.
At least six hundred men.
Bazookas and semi-automatic machine guns.
Buccaneer grinned and readjusted his automail.
This would be a field day.
He had a stubble.
He'd managed to shave five days ago.
Five days ago where the backup troops should've arrived.
They didn't.
"Arghh, this is driving me crazy!" Ed ran his hands through his messy hair, growling into the sky as their group continued walking forward.
Roy sighed, "Calm down Fullmetal, they may be following our footsteps as we speak,"
It had been too dangerous to stay in one place, so the group opted, under Maes' advice, to return to Fort Briggs and regain their strength before they could take any further action.
Roy eyed Edward's arm critically, "Did the mechanic fix everything?"
Even the bloody mechanic had managed to come before their backup troops. Pathetic. "Yeah, good as new," he clenched his fist and stretched his arm, smiling, "Still, what gives? We've been waiting for reinforcements for a while now,"
Roy hummed thoughtfully, "True, I'll give you that, perhaps they've ran into some trouble along the way,"
Greed, hands stuffed in his pockets, growled from beside them, "Trouble? Do you know what trouble is? Trouble is the thing I'll get once I find a phone and call Lena!"
Ed shivered, "No, that's hell Greed,"
The soldier fixed him with a glare, "Oi, she's my girlfriend midget,"
A familiar welling of rage built up in his chest, but he stubbornly fought it down, "Hey! You said the same thing!"
The raven-haired man shot back, "I'm allowed to say it since I mean it in a boyfriend kind of way, you'll understand once you get a woman of your own," he coughed into his fist, "…or man,"
"What was that?" Ed's eyebrow twitched.
"Nothing,"
Alphonse, silently walking alongside Ling and his other medical team, observed his brother from afar worriedly.
"What's wrong, Al?" Ling followed the blond's line of sight and smiled knowingly, "He'll be fine, he had a good week's rest,"
The man shook his head, "It's not that, not really, I'm just worried about him that's all,"
Ling grinned in understanding, slinging an arm over his friend's shoulders, "I know the feeling, I always feel like the older twin whenever I'm around Greed,"
"I heard that you little bitch!" Greed barked back, shooting him the evil eye from the front.
Ling called back, "I love you too despite your disastrous fashion sense!" he grinned broadly, causing Al to chuckle.
"Excuse me?!"
Ignoring his brother's outbursts, Ling focused back on Al, "Anyway, it's practically in our genes to worry, just like it's in their nature to do stupid things and get injured," he shrugged, as if it was the simplest thing in the world.
Al shook his head, smiling tiredly, "Yeah, maybe you're right Ling,"
Roy's loud voice suddenly reached their ears, "Stay alert, we are heading over to Fort Briggs, it's our best chance to gather our strength, don't waste too much of it on the way in case of an ambush," they all nodded seriously, Breda and Fuery walking sluggishly behind Havoc and Falman.
"Ugh, why did I sign up for this again?" Breda tiredly yawned, stretching his arms up above his head.
Fuery smiled, adjusting his glasses, "Well, can't say I regret it. At least, life is not boring, right?" he grinned brightly at his companion, who only scoffed and laughed.
"General Mustang! General Mustang, wait!" a unfamiliar voice rang from behind the group, Breda and Fuery immediately crouching and readying their rifles until they saw the familiar messenger badge stuck to the blue uniform of the state military, the man rushing towards them in a panicked hurry.
Greed, Ling, Alphonse and Ed watched him curiously how he hastily searched for a telegram, Ed's heart jumping in hope for Winry's letter, but it was curbed the moment the messenger soldier gave Roy a opened envelope. Murmurs were heard among their group about the contents of the paper.
Dead silence stretched over the group the minute they all saw the expression on the soldier's face-
It was terror.
Pale-faced and with trembling fingers, the soldier pushed the opened letter to Roy.
Roy rose a brow at the opened letter, "Soldiers of lower status never opened letters, just why did this one open it?" instead of voicing his question, he unfolded the letter in his hands.
The messenger soldier's voice was a broken whisper, a crack in his voice at the end of his sentence, "General Mustang, sir…I'm sorry but…"
Roy turned the letter around to scan its contents and paused at the short sentences on the paper.
His hands shook.
"-the reinforcements won't come,"
I'm so sorry… I finally update after such a long time and stop at the best part… (bows repeatedly) I APOLOGIZE! .
BTW: Please visit AzureVermillion's profile page on DeviantArt, she kindly made a amazing fanart for me of Lena (my OC)! Go and check it out!
Link: Deviantart azurevermillion / art / Lena - 766431189 (without spaces)