Ah, another chapter. I should probably give a shout out to Redwalgrl's "Such is the Life of a Slut" for some inspiration. If you've read her latest chapter, you'll see what I mean. In any case, thanks so much for reading and reviewing!

Chapter 18

"You're no friend of mine, traitor." Marta hissed. She took a step back and held out her knife as Kimblee slowly stood up. He had a cocky grin on his face, but his eyes were dangerous. Having lost her advantage of surprise, Marta was going to have to play this carefully if she wanted his head. There was another man to Kimblee's left who looked familiar, but didn't seem to be a fighter. He had backed away quickly enough. "You're going to pay for what you did!"

"How is good old Greed doing anyway?" Kimblee shrugged and started taking a few steps to walk around Marta. The snake woman was good, he would give her that. Normally, Kimblee wouldn't be too worried, but at the moment Archer was here. Having used companions and non-fighters as hostages, bargaining tools, explosives, and the like himself, Kimblee was more than aware of what Marta might do. Kimblee made note for future events to lock Archer in a closet somewhere before Kimblee fought. Just to be safe, of course. "He must miss me if he sent you here."

"Joke all you want, but for betraying us you're a dead man, Kimblee." Marta leaped and stretched her arm out in an attempt to distract the traitor with the knife, her other arm was swinging around to get him from the side. Marta cursed when Kimblee dodged both, but thankfully he didn't have time to clap his hands. "Die!"

Kimblee dodged as the attacks continued and prayed he didn't slip. What he needed was a moment to clap his hands and get some raw materials. Even Marta couldn't stand up to an explosion; at the very least she'd be thrown off her game. "You guys are taking this way too personally."

That woman was a chimera.

Archer's brain was racing a mile a minute as his alchemist fought with the blonde woman in the hallway. For the moment, he had been forgotten and that was just fine by Archer. He needed time to think. This 'Marta' was one of the chimera that had escaped in Dublith. Archer watched as her arms stretched and moved gracefully with her body in an inhuman fashion, but somehow still human. The body was contorted, but those were very human movements and fighting styles. It was a perfect blend of man and beast to create a gorgeous fighting machine. Archer wanted her.

Archer's only blessing at the moment to reaching that goal, was that no one had discovered the fight in the hall just yet. But the moment Kimblee blew something up that blessing would flitter away and be lost forever. Archer had big plans that didn't involve having the cavalry show up and take that woman away. This was a second chance to capture a fully functioning chimera from lab five and Archer was not going to let it slip again. But how to tell Kimblee not to kill her? Archer cursed in his head; that would be near impossible without letting the chimera girl in on what he was planning. Archer would have to knock her out himself than, or trick her somehow. That was it; Archer smirked.

"You're persistent, aren't you?" Kimblee winced when she finally landed a hit to his shoulder. He had blocked the blunt of it, but it still smarted. At least she'd been ignoring Archer completely during all of this. Kimblee had his hands full without defending someone else. "It's not like I killed the guy."

"But it's your fault he's dead!" Marta cried and took another vicious swing at the bastard in front of her.

Kimblee paused and took a few steps back to put some distance between the two of them; his eyes searching for something with enough materials to create a bomb. Marta wasn't letting him get close enough to the walls to use them and the floor was a no go. Distraction tactics then. "Greed's dead?"

Marta's fists tightened and her hair fell slightly into her face to cover her eyes. She refused to let her hands shake. "All of them are dead. Greed. Dorochet. Loa. Bido. And it's all your fault!"

Kimblee narrowed his eyes and clenched his own fists. How dare she blame him? All he did was secure a little blackmail and leave. Sure, Kimblee told them where Greed and the others were hiding, but the military was hardly a match for that monster. "My fault? How is that my fault?"

"You brought the military there! You stole the skull and it's your fault we were attacked." Marta kicked off from the ground in a sprint towards Kimblee. This man was to blame. "But most importantly, you betrayed us! And no worries, Tucker's going to follow shortly after."

Kimblee snorted and clapped his hands; he'd just catch Marta and use her as a bomb. A little risky if he failed to dodge that knife of hers, but that's what made it so fun. Kimblee smirked. "Please, the military was going to attack anyway. I just got out before the fireworks went off. Stop blaming me for your own inability to protect Greed."

"Bastard!" Marta shrieked and was almost to Kimblee when the gunshot went off. Both she and Kimblee stopped, frozen in place, and looked towards the side where the slimy man who had bribed Kimblee (Marta finally recognized him as the man with the skull) who had a smoking gun next to his head.

Archer smirked; that was one way to get their attention. He truly was tired of being completely ignored off to the sidelines. "While this is all well and good, we are in the middle of the hallway in Central headquarters." Archer paused and looked at his gun. "And after that shot I say we have about five minutes before soldiers arrive, so why don't we take this little feud elsewhere. Shall we?"

What the hell was Archer doing? Kimblee stared at the man in an almost shell shock. Marta was in much the same state if her lack of attacking was anything to go by. If Archer was going to shoot, why didn't he just shoot Marta? She had both forgotten all about him; it would have been easy to take her out. "And where exactly are we going to go?"

"The training grounds might be good." Archer smiled and tapped his gun on the side of his temple. He kept it ready to fire in case he needed it. "But either way we should excuse ourselves from this location."

Marta frowned and started to tense her stance. There was something very wrong going on here, and she really didn't like the way those blue eyes were looking at her. There was a sort of lust there that sent chills down her spine; like he was looking over a piece of meat. It was unnerving to say the least; Marta suppressed the urge to find something to cover herself up. "And why should I trust you?"

"You shouldn't." Archer shrugged and turned his head when he started to hear shouts from around the corner. It seems he had underestimated the reaction times of the soldiers at Central. He'd have to modify his plans a bit to accommodate. "Well, that was quick."

Marta heard the shouts too, but she wasn't stupid enough to go with either of these two. A traitor and a pervert; as if she would even dare. "This isn't over."

With that, Kimblee watched as the woman stretched up and knocked out an air vent grate and slithered her way up. He could hear the clattering as she traveled down the vents and narrowed his eyes. Archer was looking rather smug off to the side himself; something was up. Kimblee didn't like it, whatever it was.

"Lieutenant Colonel! We heard a gunshot." A second lieutenant, Archer wasn't sure who he was, approached them and looked at the scene. "What happened?"

"We ran into the intruder." Archer started. "There was a scuffle and I fired the gun to get him off of Lieutenant Colonel Kimblee. He went off in that direction." Archer pointed down the hallway in the opposite direction Marta had gone in the vents. "He's fast, so you might want to hurry."

"Understood, sir!"

Archer smirked as the lieutenant and his group ran down the hallway; they'd never catch up with that one. Kimblee walked over and Archer tensed; Kimblee's eyes were furious. When Kimblee's hand wrapped around Archer's uniform and yanked him up about an inch off the ground and slammed him against a wall, Archer had to think carefully about what he said next. He'd never seen Kimblee direct this much rage at him before; it was a little exciting. "Is there a problem?"

Kimblee practically snarled in response. Not only did Archer draw attention to himself, but he let Marta get away. He could have been hurt! "Why did you do that?"

"Relax, Kimblee. I know what I'm doing." Archer pulled a hand up and rubbed the back of Kimblee's knuckles with his thumb. If his alchemist wasn't calm, than there was no way he was going to listen. "Now would you put me down?"

Kimblee reluctantly obeyed but still left his face the same. Archer had better have a damn good excuse for that. "Start talking."

"It was the only way I could keep you two from killing each other." Archer straightened out his jacket and started walking. He still needed to get to the lab, and now it was more so to inform Tucker of what was going on. Preparations needed to be made, such as a place to put the woman once they caught her. A cage was hardly adequate if he wanted her to cooperate.

"I wasn't going to lose."

"I didn't say you were." Archer looked over his shoulder at the pouting alchemist. At least Kimblee wasn't enraged any longer. This was one of the few times where that man's mood swings had come in handy. "I want her alive."

Kimblee crossed his arms and walked faster to keep up with Archer. There was an almost perceivable bounce in his step. "For what?"

"For Tucker, of course." Archer smirked. "The whole point of going to Dublith those months ago was to capture the chimera from lab five and if what she said is correct, she's the only one left. This is too good a chance to pass up."

"So, you're going to experiment on her?" Kimblee questioned. He was having a hard time picturing Archer being able to keep her as quiet as he had been those chimera Tucker had been making. And what could he possibly get out of experimenting on her? As earlier stated, Archer already had his chimera- the man was crazy about those dumb things.

"Well, Tucker will be doing the work, but more or less that's correct." Archer skipped a few steps as he went down the stairs to the outside. Archer hadn't felt this motivated since he first got a hold of the Crimson Alchemist and the Sewing Life Alchemist. "But she's bound to attack again and now we can be ready. So remember, we want to capture her not kill her."

"I still don't see the point." Kimblee emphasized. "You have chimera right now."

"True, but they're rather dumb." Archer sighed and rubbed at his temple. They were loyal, and they liked Archer. But the fact of the matter was that they were still more focused on defense than offense. Archer needed body guards and frontlines man. "Which makes them of little use outside of maybe large guard dogs. I need something smarter that can fight, Kimblee. And Ms. Marta is the perfect example that Tucker needs to see to make the chimera we've got better."

"Smarter isn't always better, you know." Kimblee frowned and rubbed his arm where Marta had hit him. It was probably going to bruise and he made a note to start carrying raw materials on him. If she died on accident, Archer couldn't blame him. "Smart things tend to question orders."

"Which is why we've been focusing on using dogs in the mix." Archer started and smiled when he saw the lab come into view. It was a shame he wasn't going to have much time to fill in Tucker before he had to go back and find Mustang. "They're loyal. Besides, I just need them a little bit smarter, not dreadfully intelligent."

Kimblee still didn't like this, but it was for some other reason than safety. The Crimson Alchemist was thinking hard about what else could be bothering him about this situation, but nothing was coming to mind. For now, though, he'd keep quiet and see where things went before acting.