After that filler: WE'RE BACK TO THE PLOT!
Liz: Which has been significantly changed by Envy's differences and the fact that we decided to cut the fuers double from the movie.
Envy: Cause no one really knew why they introduced his random character as a good guy anyway, or what significance he really had.
Ed: So we're using plot holes to figure out about the Thule society!
Wrath: HOORAY!
Envy: What are you doing here?
Wrath: I've been absent from the past few authors notes.
REVIEW!
I have a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time... as can be supported with plenty of evidence from my recent past. I also have a habit of sticking my nose into things I really shouldn't and finding out more than I bargained for...
You might wonder why I bring this up.
Trust me, it won't take you long to find out.
The day after Envy's visit through my window -a visit which Ed, thank god, didn't find out about- I went out for a walk. See walks used to have a trend with getting me screwed over back in Amestris, but here hardly anything happened that was remotely dangerous or exciting, so I could usually take my walks without falling into some trap, getting kidnapped, or discovering something twisted or messed up.
No such luck today.
I tend to pick up on alot of peoples conversations when I walk... it's not that I'm nosy or anything... well I am but anyway: I find out alot of stuff just by listening. When I was walking through a less crowded area of the city, past an alleyway a bit of interesting gossip met my ears.
"General."
"Good afternoon Dr. Haushoffer."
"Any luck so far?"
"No, we can't find the Gypsy girl any where."
I stopped in mid stride and glanced twoards the voices. There were four men, two of which were talking. The first looked like a man in the military, the other like a scientist with a thick mustache. The other two... were the goons from the carnival.
Fan-Flippin-Tastic
The conversation caught my attention for two reasons, one I was sure they were talking about Noah and two I had heard the name Haushoffer from Hoenhiem before he left. Someone that he worked with.
"Damn" Haushoffer muttered. "I was hoping she could find the great serpant for us. Eckheart says it may be possible without it to open the gate to Shamballa and we plan on trying... but I have doubts. I feel the circle will be incomplete."
I was frozen on the spot. Gate? Shamballa? What was Shamballa? Circle? Were they talking about a transmutation circle? Who was Eckheart? And even more than any of those questions... was the great serpent they were talking about... Envy?"
"Sightings stopped a little under a year ago" the General was saying. "Are you sure the serpent was ever real?"
"Eckheart believes so." Haushoffer sighed. "We trust her judgement for now. The Thule society is dependent on her..."
"So you are trying tonight?"
"Yes we-" Hausoffer cut off in mid sentence and turned... to stare straight at me. I guess I got so caught up in the conversation I forgot to act casual and I was standing frozen, staring straight at them, wide eyed.
Great job Liz...
"Can we help you?" the General guy asked his eyebrows raising.
"Uh... heh heh... no" I backed up waveing my hands back and forth. "Nothing to see here... I'll just be going now."
I know, I'm the queen of subtlty right?
"Hold it." the General was walking twoards me. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about our current topic of conversation would you? Because it seems it would be un interesting to an everyday commoner..."
"Um...no..." my eyes trailed to the other goons who seemed to be trying hard to wrap their minds around where they'd seen me before. I had to get out of here. "It's definetly not interesting at all to me! Really!"
"Are you positive about that?" the General guy knew I was lying.
"Absolutely" I beamed. "I'll just leave you two to talk about your completely mythical other worlds ok?"
"I don't recall us ever saying that Shamballa was another world" Hausoffer mused, joining the General in front of me.
One of the goon's brains suddenly seemed to work again "HEY! THAT'S ONE OF THOSE RUNTS WHO HELPED THE GYPSY ESCAPE AT THE FAIR!"
"Oh shit." I muttered. "I'm gone." I ducked swiftly under the General's arm as he tried to grab me and bolted down the alleyway. The thugs tried to stop me but I shot under the first one, knocking his legs out from under him and kneed the other one in the face as I jumped before coming down in a roll and running as fast as I could.
"Stop her!" the General commanded. "Bring her back!"
The goons were hot on my trail because while they weren't amazing at fighting, they were fast and annoyingly persistant. Arms pumping at my sides I skidded around a corner and stopped as a short twinge shot through. I heard their voices getting louder. Which way did I go?
I felt two arms grab me from behind and yank me behind a tall stack of crates in the alleyway, covering my mouth and cutting of by cry of suprise.
"Don't. Move." an unfamilier voice whispered in my ear.
My natural reaction was of course to move and I tried to struggle out of my captor's grasp but his grip was strong, pulling me back against his chest.
"Which way did she go?"
"I think she went this way!"
I heard the voices and footsteps slowly subside and the hand dropped away from my mouth and the person sighed "Who's out to get you this time kid?"
Relief washed over me. "Envy is that you?" I turned to see the tall blonde boy that was Envy's human form smirking at me.
"Who else did you think it was?"
"The voice was unfamilier to me and judging by my luck it could've been any random kidnapper or serial killer or... something!" I snapped irritably though I was very relieved that the goons had lost track of me. "What are you doing here, anyways?"
"I was just walking back this way, I try to avoid crowds." he shrugged looking amused. "I saw you running and you kind of froze up in the middle of alleyway there so I decided to grab you before those guys caught up."
"Uh... right..." I muttered, staring at the ground. "Thanks I guess."
"Don't mention it" He waved the gratitude away. "So why were they chasing you?"
"Uh... I over heard something I wasn't supposed to... and I had a run in with them at a carnival a few days ago. Ed and I saved this Gypsy girl who I guess had a "contract" with them, obviously made against her will as she was running..." I grinned sheepishly. "That goon recognized me... not suprised, I kicked him in the face pretty hard... they still need to find her for some reason or another... guess they were hoping to find out from me."
"You have the unfailing ability to get on peoples bad sides kid" Envy sighed, shaking his head.
"You have the unfailing ability to smirk constantly." I retorted. "And I don't get on peoples bad sides that much! They just attack me for no good reason!... Like you for example! I never did anything wrong to you and you kidnapped me all the time!"
Envy was unfazed by my temper, leaning casually back against the wall "That's not true... you called me a palmtree on several occasions shrimp."
"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU CALLED ME SHORT!" I exploded. "And besides it's true! You're hair does look like a palmtree!"
"Well then it's also true that your short" Envy smirked patting me on the head.
"I AM NOT!"
"You're also loud."
"I AM N-" I stopped realizing I was yelling. "...I hate you..."
"Oh, no you don't." his smirked widened. "At least you didn't last night, did you?"
"Sh-shut up." I muttered, feeling heat rise to my cheeks. "You are so... so..." I groaned in exasperation, as I couldn't find a word at the moment.
Envy just chuckled... the smirk never leaving his face I might add.
I suddenly heard a gun click and I whirled around to see the goons, the professor, and the General standing at the head of the alleyway. The general was pointing a pistol at me, "Alright don't move girl."
"We're in the middle of an argument here" I muttered, glaring at him. "Can you come back later?"
"Quiet!" the General commanded sharply. "If you hadn't been so loud, we wouldn't of found you anyway."
I heard Envy snickering behind me.
"Envy shutup" I said through an extrememly forced smile.
"Where's the Gypsy girl?" the General persisited. "We know that you know where she is!"
"Let's say I wanted to tell you, then what?" I asked iceily.
"That is none of your consern." Haushoffer said in a much calmer mood then the General. "It is not something normal people need to know about."
"Oh but I'm not normal, gentlemen" I said, grinning evily. "How many normal people do you know who are this close to slicing that gun out of your hand and beating answers out of you, huh? Please answer honestly."
"Don't play tricks with us little girl! We'll-" the General started but I was already moving, my knife sliding into my hand with practiced ease and slicing upwards, cutting the barrel of the shiny pistol in half and sending it flying from his hands.
"I don't like it when people point guns at me" I growled. "And I really don't like it... when people. Call. Me. SMALL!"
The goons moved in to attack me but I kicked his feet out from under him, twisted and punched him to the side as he fell. The second came at me and I ducked under his arm and punched him in the ribcage bringing him down. Then a sudden sharp pain shot through my abdomen and I fell to my knees, wincing in pain.
Why, why again already? I should get at least a few days break after that bad one yesterday!
'You're working yourself too hard little human' Truth warned.
'No freakin duh Sherlock!'
The General grabbed a gun from one of his fallen goons and pointed it at me "Damn brat."
With lightning speed Envy was in front of me, grabbing the gun and forcing it up before the General could fire, sending the bullet harmlessly into the air. "Give. Me. The gun." he said in a low threatening voice. The General let go of the gun and stumbled back, funny enough. I guess Envy looked pretty scary, even if he was in his human form. He pointed the gun at it's previous owner, his finger on the trigger.
"I would leave if I were you." he growled, his face dead serious, a vicious gleam in his eye. "And I won't kill you."
"Damn you" the General growled. "Let's go!" He glanced at me. "This isn't the end girl!" then they left.
Envy tossed the gun away and bent down next to me "You ok Liz?"
"I... yeah..." I murmured, staring at him in shock. "Quick thinking, thanks."
"You may not be helpless kid," he sighed. "But you shouldn't pick fights when you're that out numbered."
"I could've handled it if I hadn't-" I cut off suddenly feeling guilty. "Uh... nevermind."
A small smirk crept onto Envy's face "That's my point. Because of that scar you've got, you can't fight that many people without risking an attack am I right?"
I bit my lip and stared at the ground "Uh... yeah... you're right..."
"My point is watch yourself." he pulled me to my feet.
"Oddly enough, you seemed worried about me" I teased with a grin.
He rolled his eyes "Just don't be stupid ok kid?"
"Yeah... ok." I sighed. "Thanks... again..."
He smirked and looked up at the darkening sky "I think Fullmetal pipsqueak is going to freak out if you stay too long."
"Ah... crap." I muttered slapping a hand to my forehead. "You're right... I'll see you later..." I waved before cracking a smirk. "Palmtree." and darting down the alleyway.
"You too shrimp!" he yelled after me, glaring.
I managed to get home before it got completely dark but Ed was still waiting "Liz where've you been?"
"I had a run in with some... people. I'm fine." I said evasivly. "I got away."
"I can see that" Ed sighed. "Now who were these people?"
I told him about the conversation I had over heard between the proffesor and the General and how the goons had chased me before stopping abruptibly, realizing that I might want to leave out the Envy part. "...So I, out ran them..." I finished lamely. I sounded so guilty of omition that I almost winsed.
Ed eyed me, his arms crossed, his eyebrow raised "I thought we were past your little phase of hiding things from me."
I bit my lip "Ed, do you really want to here about Envy?"
"Wh-what? What does he have to do with this?" Ed demanded. "Did he attack you?"
"Uh... no... actually he kind of saved me..."
Ed blinked in disblief "Really?"
"Yes Ed." I sighed in exasperation. "He may hate you but you might've deduced that he doesn't hate me!"
"I know, I know... I'm glad you're ok" Ed muttered looking sheepish. "So anyway, about Haushoffer..."
"Yeah, I remember the name too." I nodded. "Didn't your dad work with him or something?"
"Yeah... I think he teaches at the university." Ed nodded. "If we're gonna learn something we'll have to do a little snooping. You in?"
"Duh." I yawned. "I'm tired. I'm gonna go get some sleep."
"Right... oh and Liz."
I turned, an eyebrow raised.
"Do you have any idea what they meant by great serpant? I can't figure that one out." Ed asked.
Oh I had an idea. But I wasn't sure I wanted him to know.
Tell him or tell him not...
"No clue" I shrugged the lie rolling with suprising ease off my tongue. "Sounds wierd right? Probably some wierd legend or an expression or something like that... maybe we'll figure out tommorow if we look around."
"Yeah guess your right." Ed nodded. "Night Liz."
"Night." I called heading up the stairs.
'You lied so easily there little human' Truth giggled.
"Yeah." I murmured. "Lying may not be my specialty... but I do it so much I guess I'm bound to get better at it some time..."
So as you can see, Envy and Liz still have a sort of love hate relationship going...
Envy: I do enjoy messing with her...
Liz: Thanks alot.
Ed: REVIEW!
