Hey again! Haha, it's only been two weeks this time~ ^.^

As many of you may have noticed, I went and totally revamped my profile. }:D Now it looks a little neater and has some stuff about my fics on it, like when you might be able to expect the next update (though that may not be completely accurate information). I've also added a new poll for all you Tsubasa lovers~ Isn't it depressing that the series ENDS in ONE more chapter? And my favorite character…T-T

Hope you guys enjoy~!

"Can you hand me the flashlight?" Al asked, glancing at Rina behind him. They were back at the military base, much to Rina's dislike, he assumed, but Ed was catching up on his research back at the apartment and Winry wouldn't be much help in a precarious situation like this. That left only him to go with her.

Rina tossed him the flashlight easily from where she was stationed by the door of the small room, keeping watch. Scanning the papers in front of him with the flashlight, Al was dismayed to see nothing of importance. Only files of old officers, long gone or having disappeared long before the time of the disappearances they were currently looking into.

Moving on to the next desk, he repeated the process of searching fruitlessly through the files, folders, and various scattered papers. Sighing, he threw the flashlight back to Rina, who caught it without looking at him. She seemed to be focused on something on the other side of the door's window, but not in a way that made Al worry about being discovered by anyone.

"Anything?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Al wondered how much it cost her to speak to him. He still wasn't exactly sure why she was even mad at him in the first place.

"Not yet," Al answered. "You want to try?"

"Sure," Rina replied, backing away from the door and heading to one of the cabinets. Al took her former place, careful to stay quiet in case someone passing by in the hall happened to hear him. He heard the shuffle of papers behind him as Rina searched for something he might have missed.

After a long while, when neither of them had said anything, Al asked, "So what's your sister like?"

"What?" Rina said, her voice tense.

"You said you had a sister before, right?" Al replied. "What's she like?"

Rina didn't reply. Al didn't look in her direction, either, knowing that it wouldn't be wise to push the subject if she didn't want to talk about it. Giving up on getting a response from her, Al looked out of the window again. The halls were dark, but not impossibly so, and he could clearly see down them. Still, he wasn't sure whether some flickering shadows were really just shadows or someone stalking down the hallway, about to catch and find them out.

"Kind," Rina suddenly said.

"Huh?" Al asked in surprise, looking back at Rina. He couldn't see her clearly in such a dark room, but he did see her rigid back and hard-set eyes as she gazed down at the papers she was sorting through, intent on her work.

"You asked about my sister, right?" Rina asked. "She was…kind. She was always looking out for me, and we hardly ever went anywhere without the other. You were right in what you said before; we were very close."

"Were?" Al echoed. "Did something happen?"

Silence. Then, "The military came. They argued with my father and mother, but I couldn't hear what they were saying. I heard the front door slam, and when my sister and I went to ask our parents what had happened, they wouldn't tell us. Later that night I went out to the store to get something, and when I came back, our house was on fire. My parents were found dead inside, but my sister was missing. I never saw her again."

"I'm so sorry," Al murmured. "I didn't know…I shouldn't have asked."

"It's okay," Rina replied softly. "It…it wasn't your fault. That was a long time ago. You and your brother were probably still living in Resembool, right? The way you always talked about it, it sounded so peaceful…"

"Maybe I could show you around some day," Al suggested. "It's a beautiful place; I'm sure you would love it. You could meet Granny Pinako, too. She's Winry's grandmother and she also took care of us after our father had left and our mother died. Brother and I also lost both of our parents."

"But you still had each other," Rina said, her voice wistful. "You said before that after your mother died you went and learned alchemy from…from…"

"Izumi," Al supplied, laughing lightly. "She was a strict one, that's for sure."

"That's right, Izumi," Rina remembered, the ghost of a smile touching her lips. "You always had the funniest stories about the time when you were training under her."

"Funny for you, maybe," Al muttered, with which Rina replied to with a laugh. He smiled, happy that Rina was loosening up a little bit. He couldn't remember the last time he had heard her laugh.

"You said you traveled with your brother after that, and you were always talking about the people you had met and the things you had done, but you never said why you started traveling," Rina went on. "Was there any particular reason?"

"We were…looking for something," Al answered hesitantly.

"Oh?" Rina asked. "What was it?"

Al didn't know how to reply. Rina had just told her about her past, terrible as it was, so he should be able to tell her about his, right? Before, when he was still searching for Ed, he had spoken to Rina a lot, talking mostly about their travels and not mentioning them trying to bring their mother back or the Philosopher's Stone at all. He couldn't even imagine what she would think of him if he told her, so he had never said why they were traveling. But now…

"Did you hear that?" Rina asked suddenly, her voice sharp. The inquisitive look in her gaze had disappeared, to be replaced with an alert calmness. Al froze, instinctively trying to hear anything out of the ordinary. Then he heard it: click, click, click.

"It sounds like someone's walking outside in the hall," Al whispered, peering out of the window cautiously. "But I don't see anyone."

"Get away from the door," Rina hissed, turning off the flashlight and sliding behind a filing cabinet that hid her from view of the door. "Hide!"

Backing away from the door quietly, Al quickly hid himself behind one of the rows of filing cabinets. He'd be safe if someone only looked through the window of the door, but if they actually came in and looked around, he'd have to be fast in avoiding them.

The sound of footsteps grew louder outside the door, then abruptly stopped. Al held his breath as he heard the creak of the door opening. There was a long pause, then a soft click as the door was shut again. The sound of footsteps receded down the hall until they disappeared altogether, neither Al nor Rina making a move for another few minutes until they were sure whoever it was had gone.

Just as Al was about to ask Rina if they should stay or head back to the apartment, a burst of shining blue electricity lit the room up like fireworks. The filing cabinets in front of Al blew back like leaves caught in a storm, crushing against Al and the wall of filing cabinets behind him. He gasped, at surprise for the sudden explosion and from the pain.

A fierce jolt of searing pain shot up his left arm, accompanied by an oppressing weight crushing his lungs, numbing that of the other cuts and bruises he had. Looking over, he saw that his arm was stuck under the weight of a filing cabinet, dented into a near unrecognizable shape, and a part of the wall that had collapsed in. Another filing cabinet was laying on top of his chest, making it almost impossible for him to breathe, let alone move. Blood was starting to seep out from both places.

"Al!" Rina yelled, clearly panicked. He had to force his mind to focus on the form of Rina on the other side of the room, perfectly safe as she stood up from where she had been hiding. It looked like the explosion hadn't touched her side of the room. Thank goodness…she's…safe.

"Al, hold on, I'll get you out of there in a minute," Rina said, but her voice sounded faint to him. Distantly, he was aware of flashing lights and a loud alarm going off, but it wasn't registering.

"Don't waste your time on him," a voice cut through. It was deep, clearly a man's, but Al couldn't make out the shape of the person standing near the door of what had once been the filing room. "After all, he's with the people who killed your family."

"What are you talking about?" Rina asked, speaking the words that Al wanted to, but couldn't, say himself, and spinning around to face the newcomer. She was gripping a small dagger that Al had seen only once before; she had shown it to him when she was explaining that she always had it on her wherever she went so that she wouldn't be unarmed, just in case. He had forgotten about it until now.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," the man said smoothly, casually, almost. "You've always known that it was the military that killed your family, haven't you? Yet you joined them and let yourself get close to that dog of the army."

"That's a lie!" Rina declared, but her voice was uncertain and her hands shook. "He had nothing to do with it! And I joined the military so that I could search for my sister! You don't…you don't know anything!"

"Don't I?" the stranger asked, chuckling. "I know that your sister is dead with the rest of your family. If she was still alive, why hasn't she looked for you like you have been?"

"Maybe she hasn't been able to," Rina argued, backing away as the man stepped forward.

"Listen to you, trying to create a reason for everything," he laughed. "You're pathetic."

"Shut up!" Rina screamed above the wailing sirens.

"The real reason you joined the military was because you wanted revenge, wasn't it?" he went on, not even pausing in his step as he strode forward confidently. "You made up the excuse that it was to find your sister, but you just wanted to inflict pain on the ones that hurt you. You've been waiting all this time for it."

"Stop it," Rina begged, her voice cracking as she fell to her knees and the dagger dropped out of her grasp, clattering to the ground.

The man stopped in front of her, looking down at her with gleaming eyes. "I can help you," he said. "I can help you get that revenge. If you help me first, that is."

"No, Rina…don't," Al mumbled, hardly able to keep the black edges that were forming around his mind from closing in completely. "Don't listen…to him."

"Shut up, scum," the man scoffed, looking over at Al with disdain. "You don't have anything to do with this."

"Rina," Al said, his voice insistent as she made no move to do anything. She had her hands gripping her head, and he couldn't see her expression.

"Let's go, dear," the man said, turning back to her. "We need to get out of here before any unwanted guests show up."

"Yes," Rina replied, her voice distant. She stood up slowly, her back to Al. The man strode past her, not even looking behind him to see if she followed.

"No, Rina!" Al called after her, trying to push the cabinets off him, but he couldn't so much as move them an inch. For some reason he couldn't find the strength to do…anything. "Don't go…please, Rina!"

"I'm sorry, Al," Rina murmured, looking back at him over her shoulder. Her eyes were sad, but hard as she turned and followed the man out of the room, out of Al's sight, and out of his reach.

"No," Al muttered, his eyelids feeling heavy. "You can't…go…"

Against his will, he lost his feeble grip on reality, spinning through a dark dream of a twisted world that wasn't so unlike the one he had just left.

Aaaw, depressing, right? And I didn't mention Ed. I sorry. Next chapter, I promise! :P

So what do you guys think of Rina's past~? I had the whole "sister disappeared" thing planned out awhile ago and I knew I'd tie in the military so she'd turn traitor, but I didn't have any of the specifics planned out until I just sat down and started writing. ^.^'

Please review~!