A/N: This was really cathartic to write when I wrote it, and then strangely cathartic to edit. I found it was a little difficult to tweak canon so that it fit with my narrative, but still keep it mostly compliant and exciting, but I hope you enjoy it! Thanks so much for reading, you all make my heart sing! There will be one final chapter in this installment, and I can promise the return of a character we're all waiting for.

There is also a minor character death in this chapter, so please take care of yourselves!

On her hands and knees in the middle of a deserted hallway in a command center that was under attack, and it was all Sheska could do to not pass out. The only thing keeping her conscious was the thought that surely the one monster she had seen couldn't have been working alone, and the last thing she needed to be was passed out by herself in the middle of the hallway.

Fortunately, she didn't have to go far before she ran into the makeshift clinic. It wasn't in the operations center, but one of the offices next door that was bigger and had more room.

It looked like Briggs and Central soldiers alike were helping out with wounded men, most of the wounded looked as though they'd had run ins with the mannequin monsters.

"Sheska!" One of the other women she worked with, Ida caught her attention and waved at her from across the room. "Thank goodness you're safe! Have you come to help?"

"Yeah!" Sheska tried to avoid looking too long at any of the soldiers who seemed to be multiplying – she didn't do well with blood – and scuttled over to Ida. "Where's Sara?"

Ida wrinkled her nose and looked around, "She was here, ordering all the soldiers around. You know how much she likes to be in charge, I'm sure she'll show up."

"Yeah…"

Was no one going to talk about the creepy moving mannequins?! Because that was not something that happened in real life!

"I brought some – uh, some books", the brunette placed the medical books down on the ground beside her friend, though they seemed rather silly now. "I figured they might help."

"Here, starting cutting this to make-" Ida handed her cloth and a pair of scissors, but something caught Sheska's attention and she waved at Ida to be quiet, moving towards the noise.

Someone had rigged a radio, and it was weakly bleating the news from the main radio station.

The room was loud, and the radio was quiet, but she was still able to pick up the words 'Mustang's men' and 'in the city'.

"Kain!" She breathed, and a million emotions hit her at once. Emotions that felt inappropriate considering she was caught smack in the center of a coup.

Leaning in so that her ear was right to the speaker, she listened for a few moments, gathering that the Colonel and his men were working against corrupt officials in the military.

The corrupt officials had tried to kill the Fuhrer's wife!

Renewed with a new sense of hope, Sheska turned around to stride back over to Ida so she could start helping.

The room got louder as more and more wounded were brought to them, with only a few doctors to try to tend to them all. Sheska sat beside Ida, and they were eventually joined by Sara and another one of their coworkers, Lula, as they all worked to help create extra supplies out of whatever they could find.

The girls chattered, speculating about what they thought might happen next – by the time the mannequins were brought up, Sheska's thoughts were already elsewhere. She let her mind wander to the friend she hadn't let herself think about too deeply for months.

Hopefully, if he really was back in the city, he was safe.

She was so caught up in her thoughts she hadn't realized Sara was nudging her shoulder, and when she looked over, her friend was pale faced, and pointed towards a soldier who was lying on the ground, gasping for breath.

"He keeps pointing to you. I think you should go over there."

"Me?" Sheska squeaked.

"Go on!" Someone gave her a push, and she stumbled to her feet, crossing the room to drop down beside the fallen soldier.

He was clutching his abdomen, and from the red seeping out onto his white uniform, she got the distinct impression that he had been shot through the stomach.

What an agonizing way to die.

"Kellie?"

Sheska licked her lips, shaking her head. "I'm not – I'm sorry, I'm not Kellie."

The soldier looked at her with glassy eyes that were almost unseeing, and she realized with a sobering nausea that he couldn't have been any older than she was.

"Kellie, do you think I made Momma proud?"

Sheska scratched her forehead.

"Yeah, I do."

"Tell her – tell her that I love her."

It seemed cruel to lie, but even crueler to refuse his request, so Sheska, feeling tearful, nodded. "I will."

Taking one of his hands in hers, she sighed and rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand. Not that she expected to provide him with much comfort, but he obviously thought she was a family member in his delirium, and she wasn't going to burst his bubble.

"Do you think it'll hurt to die?" He asked, after several very long moments.

Honestly, she wasn't sure what to think. Books could only tell her so much about a topic that was so far out of human understanding. And in Sheska's opinion - needed to stay out of the reach of human knowledge.

"I think – I think that it'll be like falling into a really deep and peaceful sleep", Sheska said quietly after a moment.

"That's nice."

And Sheska watched as a giant tear rolled down out of his right eye, and then he took his last shuddering breath.

His eyes were wide open at the ceiling, glassy and unseeing.

She hadn't even asked for his name.

Feeling absolutely devastated, Sheska gently closed the fallen soldier's eyes with her fingertips, though continued to sit with him, clutching his hand.

The room around them seemed to have descended into absolute chaos, but she didn't want to leave this man.

This man, this fallen soldier who had so much life to live, who was too young, who did not deserve such a fate. A man who was unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire of commanders who didn't care whether he lived or died. A man who had become a pawn, and suffered for it.

Even with the chaos and noise of the room, when the soldier ran in to tell them that Fuhrer King Bradley was alive, and back to take over command, half the room started cheering, and half fell into silence.

With one final squeeze of the soldier's hand, Sheska made her way unsteadily over to where her friends were gathered, whispering in hushed tones.

The momentary peace between the Central and Briggs soldiers in the room seemed to have broken, and the tension in the room felt palpable. She could have sworn the temperature had dropped.

"What should we do?" Lula asked Sara, who for once in all the time Sheska had known her looked like she didn't have the answers.

Before she had time to answer, however, they were interrupted by one of the doctors.

"I think you ladies should get to the operations center. It'll be safer there than here."

"Are you sure? Surely there must be more we can do to help here." Lula offered.

"I have a feeling things are about to turn real ugly. I don't want you ladies caught in the crossfire."

Sheska bit her lip and nodded, he wasn't the first to tell her that. She was a little wary of running into the monsters that had been unleashed throughout the Fortress, but the operations center was close.

Grabbing Ida's hand, the brunette stood up and pulled her friend with her.

With a glance at the fallen soldier, "I think we've done all we can for now. The fighting will be over soon and we can help more then."

"You heard the man, let's go!" Sara grabbed Lula's hand and led the way out of the room.

Ida started trembling, and Sheska knew that she had seen the mannequin monsters.

It was getting more and more difficult to ignore all the sounds - it sounded as if the building was about to collapse in on itself, but she tried to fake a mask of calm that she didn't feel internally.

"It's okay", she encouraged, feeling much older than her years as the group of women slid out into the hall, over to the operations center, running into the room quickly because they were still unsure what was lurking out in the halls.

Sheska wasn't surprised to find that it was full of men, but she wasn't sure how to address them.

Dropping Ida's hand, she cleared her throat and stepped forwards as a dozen pairs of eyes turned to her.

"I – we were told to – reconvene here and I-"

Sara stepped in front of Sheska and said confidently, "Captain Buccaneer sent us. He said we'd be safe here."

One of the Briggs soldiers nodded. "It's alright Miss, we won't harm you."

Sheska gasped as she looked around the room, and saw three of her commanding offices tied to chairs, completely immobilized.

Brigadier General Clemin met her eyes and wiggled in his chair.

"Private! I command that you untie us."

Sheska felt her eyes grow wide and she gave a panicked look around the room, backing away from General Clemin, shaking her head.

"I – no, I – no."

What did he expect? For her to go against the wishes of the men with guns? As if they would just let her stroll up and untie him?

Her own words from months prior echoed in her ears.

Maybe we all need to stop blindly following our superiors.

They had threatened the Fuhrer's wife, who knew what else they had done behind the scenes!

Wrapping her arms around herself, she ignored the rest of the men and moved to the other side of the room, sinking down against the wall.

It felt like someone had backed over her with a train. All the emotion she had kept bottled up over the past few hours hit her and knocked the wind out of her; she was struggling to breath and needed a moment to just – be.

Sheska vaguely noted that Ida came to sit down beside her, and that Lula went over to one of the Briggs soldiers.

"You're hurt!"

"I'm fine, Miss."

Lula proceeded to fuss over the soldier anyways, and he tried to wave her away but looked rather pleased all the same.

And then, they waited.

Transmissions were made, the soldier in charge of the communications received communication from Major General Armstrong, and they waited some more.

The noises from outside worsened, and she was worried that the building might crumble in on itself and trap them all.

Sheska got up, she paced.

She noted how dark it was getting outside, and would have thought it was nighttime if she didn't distinctly remember the eclipse.

She sat back down, she hugged Lula and Ida.

It was nerve wracking not fully knowing what was happening, and her imagination was going into overdrive.

"Sheska!" Sara finally snapped, "Stop pacing, you're driving me crazy."

"Sorry."

She went to the window, staring out it and nearly jumping as one of the Briggs soldiers spoke closer to her than she realized anyone was.

"Looks like night out there."

Sheska nodded, feeling an unexplainable sense of foreboding low in her gut. "That's the eclipse."

"Hurry." They all snapped their attention to General Clemin, who was hunched over, sweat pouring down his face.

"Please hurry, we've got to get to the center of the circle. PLEASE. WE'LL DIE HERE."

Sheska took a step forwards towards him, never had she seen someone beg so desperately, and her heart started thumping against her ribcage.

"Maybe we should … listen to him."

Everyone ignored her.

"Quit acting up!"

"I'm begging you to take me to the center. Please do it, we'll be swallowed! Hurry!"

The room descended into uncomfortable silence once more.

Despite herself, Sheska pulled the glasses she had made for the eclipse out of her pocket, and watched with wonder out the window as the moon overtook the sun.

There was a faint rim of light around it, but everything else was engulfed in dark.

"Cool", she breathed, momentarily forgetting everything else as she took in the beauty of nature in action.

It was one thing to read about something, but another to witness it.

Before she had even turned away from the window, a black fog-like mist had engulfed the room.

She cried out, her voice lost amidst the other people's voices in the room, and she turned around but it was useless. They were all blind.

"What's happening?!" Sara whimpered.

"I told you", General Clemin bellowed above all the rest.

Sheska had never felt so panicked, and she smacked heads with someone as they all groped around, blind.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry!"

And then, as soon as the mist had appeared, it was gone, and the room was replaced with a faint red, eerie light.

Sheska watched wide eyed as two of the Briggs men slumped over the table, and fell to the floor.

Lula, Ida, and Sara slumped to the floor around her, and then –

It was the strangest sensation.

Almost equivalent to the feeling of walking up a flight of stairs, only to think there was one more than there actually was. The fleeting moment where your foot falls through the air, only intensified, and it didn't stop.

Her soul was leaving her body.

She fell to the floor, uncomfortably knocking against the hardwood as she struggled, in vain, to regain control of her limbs.

Sheska gasped in a deep gulp of air.

Then she could breathe no more.