Shina felt someone shake her shoulders and order her to wake up. She opened her eyes and stretched out her arms. She looked up to have her gaze met by Edward's golden eyes.
"Hey c'mon, Shina," he said. "We're here. Get up."
Shina gave him a confused stare and then looked at her surroundings. She was sitting at a window seat in a large train car. Her head had been leaning against the window to her right and Alphonse and Edward had been sitting across from her. It took her some time, but she eventually remembered that they were on an assignment together.
Edward grabbed Shina's hands and pulled her to her feet. "Hey, c'mon!" he repeated. "The train's gonna leave and we're gonna miss our stop if you don't hurry up." Shina blinked and then realized the situation. With her mind still groggy from sleep, she scrambled to grab her bags and get off of the train with the Elric brothers.
Once she stepped outside, Shina saw that the sky was covered with gray-colored clouds. A September wind blew across her bare arms, causing goose bumps to form all over her body. She frowned down at her appearance. 'Why did I have to wear i this /i outfit today?' she asked herself. It was indeed a very uncomfortable outfit for the weather that Terrinia was experiencing. She had denim jeans and black hiking boots to cover her legs and feet, but her arms were hardly covered at all by the black short-sleeved shirt that she had chosen to wear. Another wind, this one not as strong, blew across the train station again, causing Shina's brown hair to blow in her face; she quickly pulled it back into a pony-tail to keep it out of her way.
Alphonse looked around the station and quickly spotted a familiar blue uniform. "Hey, look!" he exclaimed, pointing towards a man with a military uniform and a cigarette in his mouth. "It's Lieutenant Havoc!" Edward and Shina cast their gaze to where he was pointing. Edward smiled and walked up to the Lieutenant.
"Hey Ed," Lieutenant Havoc said with a grin, "long time, no see."
"Yeah, no kidding. You're here to take us to the place where General Sakura is being held hostage, aren't you?" Edward inquired.
"That's right," the Lieutenant replied. He looked over at Shina, who was approaching the two of them with Alphonse close behind her. Havoc blinked at Shina for a moment. "Well I'll be damned. Is that you, Shina Fekir?"
Shina grinned at the Lieutenant. "Yeah, it's me. I see you're still as addicted to smoking as ever, Havoc."
Jean Havoc frowned in a childish way. "Well that's not a very nice way to greet someone that you haven't seen in…" he looked up as if to do some mental calculations, "…I'd say around a good year or so." He grinned again and patted Shina on the shoulder. "Anyways, great to see you again."
"Yeah, good to see you, too," Shina said vaguely. "So are you gonna take us to our mission or not?"
Jean chuckled and got in the driver's seat, motioning for the others to get in. "You're still just as impatience as ever, I see," Jean mumbled. Alphonse sat in the passenger's seat, considering that he couldn't fit in the back, while Shina and Edward agreed to sit in the back seats against their will.
"Hang on," the Lieutenant said. He stepped on the gas peddle with great force and the car lurched forward, towards where the hostages were being held.
Edward, Alphonse, and Shina stepped out of the car onto the dry, abandoned warehouse grounds, only to find a huge group of civilians and lower-ranked officers alike gathered around one point. The trio pushed their way through the crowd. Shina and Edward showed their pocket watches to the officials keeping the crowd under control; Shina looked around for a bit while Edward and the officials talked. They were in the front of the crowd, right behind a rope that separated one of the warehouses from the others.
'Strange…' Shina thought to herself. 'Usually hostage-takers ask that the area be totally cleared of all civilians and other people, but it doesn't seem like these guys care who shows up, whether they be officers or civilians. And the boundary line is awfully close to the warehouse…closer than it usually is. What are these guys planning…?' Something caught the corner of Shina's eye and she could have sworn that she saw red water run through the ground, but when she looked again, it wasn't there. Shina narrowed her eyes and made a low noise deep in her throat. Her thoughts were interrupted by Edward's voice.
"Hey Shina!" Edward called from a little ways off. Shina turned her head to see an officer unhooking the rope for her and Edward to get in. She walked over and entered the area with Edward. Alphonse was about to follow the two State Alchemists, but Shina stopped him.
"You shouldn't come," Shina stated bluntly. "There's a possibility you could endanger both yourself and the hostages. It would be best if you stayed out here."
"But—" Alphonse started.
"She's right," Edward interrupted. "Besides, you shouldn't worry. We'll be fine. Right Shina?"
Shina looked at Edward and then at Alphonse. "Yeah…" she said vaguely. Edward gave his brother a reassuring smile and then followed Shina to the warehouse, which was about twenty feet away from the rope that cut the warehouse off from the others.
As they walked, Shina looked straight ahead, not paying attention to anything around her. Her mind was full of questions. She was doubtful about the mission. She wanted to know who would want to kidnap the General and make the military send two State Alchemists as the ransom. It just didn't add up. No matter how Shina looked at it, none of it made any sense.
She was so focused on her suspicions that she was startled when Edward broke her thoughts. "Hey," he said, lightly tapping her shoulder, "what's with you? You've been out of it ever since we left headquarters."
Shina blinked at him and then looked forward again. "I've been thinking--about our mission, I mean. It seems weird…like something bad is going to happen."
"What do you mean?" Edward inquired.
Shina stopped walking and sighed. "I was afraid that I was going to have to tell you sooner or later. Listen; what I am about to tell you about you can't repeat to anyone. Not even Al." Edward nodded and Shina continued walking again. "I used to be apart of a secret organization in the military. We would be divided into squads of six, go on secret missions, and steal documents and other goods. The rules were simple: steal whatever you were told to get, don't die, complete the mission successfully…and kill anyone who saw you." Shina paused, waiting for Edward to make some sort of comment. When he didn't, she continued telling her story. "It was like we weren't even part of the military, let alone alive.
"Anyways, I've worked with countless people, some of which I think you may have met, Ever heard of three chimeras named Law, Dorochet, and Marta?" Edward's eyes widened and he whipped his head around to look at Shina's face. She was looking forward, her face blank from any sort of emotion. "Yeah," she resumed. "I worked with them. And I worked with General Sakura, too, although she was only a Major at the time.
"I stopped working as a 'secret agent,' as you may call it, just before the military began experiments on the agents. But something happened on my last mission." Shina stopped walking again.
"We were assigned to go behind enemy boundaries, steal a few documents, and get out alive. The mission went swimmingly, just as we had planned, but just as we were about to leave, I noticed that Sakura was missing. Suddenly, we heard a gun shot and Sakura scream. Three squad members, myself included, ran to where the scream had come from. We barged into a room and found Sakura lying in a pool of her own blood. There was a man standing on the other side of the room, holding a pistol that had obviously just been fired. He was quickly killed by one of the squad members, and I ran over to see if Sakura was alive. She was still breathing, but just barely. Three soldiers grabbed her and rushed her out of the building, and I never did find out if she lived or not. All I found out was that she had been stabbed twice, once in the thigh and once in the arm, and she had been shot in the stomach." Shina chuckled and looked up at Edward. "Now, mind telling me how someone could live through that?"
Edward stared at Shina with a look of complete shock. "So you're telling me that…?"
Shina closed her eyes and grinned slightly. "Right the first time," she replied. "This whole thing could be a trap. Edward gasped. Shina looked at Edward and broadened her grin. "Then again, maybe it isn't. Like I said, I'm not one hundred percent sure that she died. I never found out, and I haven't contacted any of my former squad members for a while."
Edward gave her an uneasy look and then stared back at the warehouse about ten feet away from them. He was about to say something to Shina, but when he turned his head he saw that she was running towards the warehouse.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Edward yelled, sprinting to catch up with her.
"We'll never find out if this is a trap or not unless we take our chances and face this mission head-on," Shina replied. She was already pulling at the wooden boards barred across the warehouse doors when Edward caught up. After a few good tugs, the duo had the boards on the ground and they were in the abandoned building.
Dust and cobwebs covered every surface. Pieces of wood were nailed against the windows and various doors inside the warehouse. The ceiling had even caved in at one spot. "Not exactly the most inviting place in the world," Edward mumbled. Shina looked around. Rotting crates and crumbling storage objects filled the large room. Doing some mental calculations based purely on what she had seen both inside and outside the warehouse, Shina guessed that the warehouse had four floors and an approximate area of three thousand square feet per floor.
"Where are we going to find someone in such a huge place?" Edward muttered to himself. He folded his arms across his chest and held his chin with his thumb and pointer finger.
Shina looked around at her surroundings one more time. She cupped her hands around her mouth and called out for the General. "General Sakura! Sakura, where are you? It's us, Shina Fekir and Edward Elric!!" Her voice echoed off the walls of the building. Edward and Shina held their breath, trying to hear a response. After no response came, Shina tried again. "Sakura!! If you can hear me, bang against something!!"
The two State Alchemists strained to hear, praying that some sort of response would emerge from the darkness. But when nothing happened, Shina began to fear for the worst. 'Damn, where is she?' she thought. She was just about to call for her former squad member again when something caught her ear.
It was quiet at first, but it started to become clearer. It sounded like someone kicking a large metal object.
When the sound started to die down, Edward called out, "Sakura! Sakura, make that noise again, and this time don't stop!!" The sound started to ring out again and Shina could tell that it was coming from one of the higher levels.
"She must be above us," Shina said to Edward. She slammed her hand onto the ground. The warehouse floor beneath her changed into a square pillar that raised her up to the ceiling. She placed her hand on the moldy cement above her and created a hole big enough for her to get through. She looked down and saw Edward clapping his hands, preparing to do the same thing.
After they both had repeated these actions again and had reached the third floor, they studied the area around them. The sound was clearer than ever. Edward looked to his right and gasped. "Sakura!" he exclaimed, running towards a female figure. Shina looked over to where he was running. She, too, gasped and quickly followed him. There, almost hidden from sight, was a terrified-looking woman no older than thirty-five.
Her blue eyes were wide with fear and her scarlet hair was matted and partially hung in her face. Her military uniform was filthy and torn. Her hands and feet were bound with thick pieces of rope and a piece of duct tape was stretched across her mouth. It looked as though she had been to hell and back.
Edward kneeled on one knee before Sakura and said, "This will hurt a bit," before ripping the duct tape off of her mouth. She yelped and then looked at the two of them with thankful eyes.
"Oh, thank God you came!" the frightened General exclaimed. "It was terrible! The tortured me and…and…oh, I thought I was going to die!" Edward smiled reassuringly and started untying the binds on Sakura's hands.
"Where's your family?" Edward asked, trying to undo the knots in the thick rope.
"I-I don't know…we were all separated," Sakura replied. "I hope they're all right…"
Shina was very uneasy about the whole ordeal. She narrowed her eyes and began questioning the mission again. 'Sakura was never this fragile and never got this scared. She never once cried, but she's acting like an inexperienced officer. She's acting the complete opposite of how she used to act. Why is she acting like this…?'
Edward muttered furiously under his breath. He was having trouble with the knots in the rope that bound Sakura's hands together. Once he finally got the common sense to use alchemy to get the General free, Sakura stood up. As she bent over to dust herself off slightly, her hair fell in her face, exposing the sides of her neck; Shina's eyes grew wide with terror.
"Edward, get behind me," Shina commanded quietly. Edward looked at her in a puzzled manner and then did as she said. Once he was behind her, Shina yelled out in rage.
"IMPOSTER!!" she screeched. Sakura looked up, bewildered.
"Wha…what are you--" Sakura asked.
"Don't screw around with me!!!" Shina yelled, interrupting the General. "Who are you?!"
Sakura was close to tears. "Shina...It's me, General Sakura. We were on missions together. Don't you remember? It's me!"
"LIAR!!" Shina's face was red with anger and Edward could almost see the fire in her green eyes.
Edward stepped up and grabbed her wrist. "Shina, calm down."
Shina glared daggers at the blonde alchemist. "She's a fraud, Ed. I know she is!" She looked back at Sakura with loathing eyes. "Sakura has a thin scar across her neck from a mission I went on with her a while ago. I suspected this was all a trap earlier. Now I'm certain. Who are you?!"
The imposter grinned wolfishly. "Oops, how careless of me," she sneered, standing up. Shina stared in horrified fascination at the imposter morphed into a young man that, oddly enough, resembled a palm tree. His attire was a black skort and a black belly shirt. Long, spiky green hair framed his pale face.
Edward knew exactly what the man before them was, and he knew that he had to get Shina and himself out of the warehouse as quickly as possible. "Shina, run!!" he yelled. Shina was too shocked to answer. She felt as though her feet were glued to the ground. No matter what she told herself, her body wouldn't move. No matter how much she told herself how much danger she was in, her limbs wouldn't respond.
Shina had barely registered the fact that the man had lifted up his leg when she felt him bring his heel into her temple. A ringing filled her ears and she heard Edward scream her name as she hit the cement floor.
Shina struggled to keep conscious, wanting to help Edward in his battle against the green-haired man, but the pain soon became too much for her to fight against. She fell limp, slipping into a void of nothingness.