Chapter 100: Secrets

Silence.

Usually, Serena adored silence but this time, it felt strange and uncomfortable as she looked at him. A small part of her shattered heart healed as she lowered her gaze. She had missed him terribly and all of this came back to her with all might. She had loved him – not the way she had loved Hakon – and she wanted to hug him but she couldn't move. She knew how much she had hurt him when she had disappeared but at the time, it had been her only real option – other than death. To run away had meant to survive and she had needed to think about herself first. She had had to stay alive at any cost – so that she could return to her friends now.

"Mermaid," Phil said softly. "Long time no see, Lieutenant."

The tension left her body as she heard how the intimidating perfection of the silence was shattered. "Breeze Soul," she replied. "Yes, it has been too long, Captain."

He chuckled softly but his eyes stayed serious. "I really missed you," he said. "What's life without the Princess of Eternal Winter, some might ask. Tsk, you never estimated yourself properly."

She shook inside. It was a terrible feeling. She trembled as the small bird inside her chest tried to escape and once more, she felt exactly like this bird.

"Foolish, sweet little girl," he smiled as he held out his hand. "Ah, c'mon, Rena. Smile and keep walking because it's all you can do anyway."

"That's why I missed you," she replied. "You hardly changed. You got older, true, and maybe a little bit gruff … but you are still blunt and straight to the point."

"Did you really expect me to change after you were gone?" he inquired.

She shook her head as their hands entwined once more. "Sometimes, I wished that you would change for the sake of the people who actually deserve to love you but I know you too well to believe that you would ever change, Phil," she said. "And it's strangely comforting that you are still the same old fool you were a few years ago."

"I love you too," he sighed.

"You know, it is nice that we can go out without worrying for our children," Riza said as she looked up from her meal. "And if one of the others is dumb enough to tick Serena off, well, we know what will happen. I hope you warned Izumi and Edward from saying anything stupid while Serena is present."

"It has been a while since I had the pleasure of hearing Serena's voice loud and clearly…" Roy smirked before he looked at her. "Maybe I will annoy her a little bit once we return. I feel like she has a lot in her system that needs to get out of her before it can cause permanent damage."

"And you really want to take her anger? You remember what happened the last time when she got mad at you? For a moment, Jean and I thought that she had killed you with her last attack…"

"That was a normal evaluation for state alchemists and I underestimated her a little bit, I admit it."

"You totally underestimated her. You thought that she was just running in circles for fun while she was preparing that huge array!" his wife sighed. "And I wasn't even talking about that incident."

"Oh, so you meant the Never-annoy-Serena-by-ruining-her-first-date-with-a-potential-husband-just-because-you-fear-that-he-could-be-a-rapist-incident?" he asked sheepishly.

"Exactly," she said while she patted his hand. "But don't worry: usually, Serena can control herself."

Serena was tired as she sat on her favourite chair and faced Maes who stared at her like he had never seen her before. Her fingertips touched each other in order to keep her calm and her eyes were trained on the black-haired man who sat on the second chair in her study. "If you want to yell at me, well, do it now," she said and her pale face was once more a perfect, stoic mask.

He wondered how she could deal with everything. She had lost a good deal of her family and her lover. Her back was marred forever (according to Roy, Maes hadn't asked Serena about this injury yet) and according to Roy's very scary aunt Izumi, Serena's formerly smooth movements had suffered too. So he just held out his hand and squeezed hers. "I believe I understand," he told her. "Don't worry, Serena, if you want to, I'll have you back in all the files before the day is over – and I am sure that you could be a state alchemist once again if you speak about this with Roy or Jade."

"You are taking this a little bit too lightly, Hughes," she scolded while she freed her golden hair from the bun she usually had on the left side of her head. "I am considering returning to duty at the moment but no matter what my choice will be, I will never return to Briggs."

He looked at her and behind the few strands that had always hidden small parts of her face, he saw the most burning determination he had ever witnessed in her eyes. "You used to love the snow," he stated.

She lowered her head and stretched her arms. "And you used to like parks, Maes," she said while she looked at him with a faint smile on her lips. "Tell me, do you still like them?"

He shook his head while he played around with one of his knives. "You know, I am worried," he said as he looked at her. "Elicia is so close to Laila, Nick and Victoria … oh, and Cai. It makes me nervous."

She chuckled while she snatched away the knife. "These kids saw more than I would have liked them to see," she said, seriously and with every ounce of her being class president, best cadet of her year and generally responsible. "I know that you dislike the relationship between Elicia and Nick because you didn't change the slightest bit since you were that overprotective-"

"I don't intend to insult you, Serena, but these guys had surely ulterior motives when they asked you out!" he quickly defended himself. "And I was under strict orders to protect your innocence!"

She sighed deeply as she toyed around with the knife. She knew how well he could handle them because they had been blackmailed once by Lynn to present some insane tricks for a talent show. She had never liked knives but on the other hand had she never liked any kind of weapon that was used to kill in first place. She would shoot decently and her aim was good but she hated the noise a gun caused. Serena preferred silence over most things and since she could move at least as quietly as any assassin from Xing, she had been usually used as a spy in the past.

"I feel still insulted that Kay considered it as necessary," she said softly, throwing the knife into the air before catching it effortlessly. "But since I know how it feels when you are being overprotective about someone, I can relate to Elicia's feelings. Hey, they are just children. And weren't you the one who swore that he would never become an overprotective father like Uncle Berthold?"

He looked at her and he wondered if she had always been such a strong and stubborn woman. But on the other hand, she had stood on the edge. She had seen the end of everything but she had fought. She had left before she had been lost. Nothing had been able to hold her down, once she had made her decision – and as far as he could remember, she had always been this way. She had moved forward, ready to attack whoever dared to step between her and her goal. People who really believed that it was easy to defeat her, easy to beat her in a game that had been hers from the first second were wrong, oh so wrong. It was impossible to catch Serena when she wanted to be free. The fact that she had been able to avoid any suspicion that she could be still alive for the last three years proved that much.

"You are … probably right once more," he told her, hesitatingly. "And I apologise for any discomfort I may have caused you when you were a teenager. I just tell you that much, Serena: You always were a pretty girl and Kay wasn't the only one who was worried that you might attract a weirdo – or two. The person who blackmailed me, Martin and Charles into shadowing you and making sure that you were fine was Roy and he did so because his cousin, Jade, you know? Well, she got herself a stalker when she was around your age and because Jade is as fragile and delicate as you, he decided that you could attract the same category of lunatics and that we had to protect you from this."

She started to chuckle before she froze. "Wait a second, Jade was the hand-to-hand-combat-specialist of the Western Headquarters when I was still in the army, right?" she asked while she finally put down the knife, something what calmed Maes considerably. "So … you aren't insulting me right now, yes?"

"Serena, can you name three people who got away with insulting you because they weren't stabbed by knives or icicles?" he asked. "Oh, and who didn't get a surprising heart attack that killed them…"

"You make Lynn and Kay sound like two lunatics," Serena said.

"Well, they were lunatics," Maes shrugged while he looked at her. "How is the babysitting going so far? Do you need … um … help while dealing with the children?"

She laughed softly. "First of all: I dealt with soldiers up at Briggs before," she said, "and secondly: some of the others started to scold the kids for running away. The last thing I saw was that Gracia was really angry with your daughter and that Breeze Soul was challenging Fullmetal, so I am sure that the others are watching their fight. I think it's boring because Soul will kill him if he isn't careful enough."

Maes sighed deeply as he looked out the window. "If Edward still believes that it is wise to mess with Jade, he is denser than I originally thought. I mean, it was terrible to watch how he never had the nerve to ask his childhood sweetheart out but that he is dumb enough to accept Jade's challenge…"

Peter stopped in the doorway before Catherina pushed him forwards with a glare on her face. He turned around and looked desperately at her. "I can't do this!" he whispered.

She glared at him before she pushed him into the room. "Peter, act your age – for once at least!" she ordered while she crossed her arms. She wore, like usually, a green pullover and jeans.

"Cathy, I know that you are mad at me for what I did, no matter how much you try to claim the opposite, but you I really have to do this? She will kill me!" he said.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't make me get really mad at you," she said before she closed the door behind him. "Oh, and I will seal the door. Serena was nice enough to borrow me her manuscript lately."

"I hate you, Cathy, I really do," he muttered.

"Oh, you keep saying that and still, you usually accept sooner or later that I am right."

He glared at the door but as it glowed for a second, he knew that she had used one of Serena's sealing techniques and he didn't want to faint from touching it. He sighed deeply and turned around to face the bed where Nerissa slept – and as he saw the frown on her forehead, he wondered if it was really so late that she had been destroyed beyond repair. He sat down on the bed and stroked her forehead with his thumb, smoothing the frown. "Nessa, we need to talk," he said softly.

Blue eyes opened slowly and she stared up at him before she tried to sit up, hissing in pain once more. "Yes, I agree," she said, strangely stiffly and distanced.

"Nessa…" he took her hand and kissed her knuckles before he looked up. "I am sorry, I really am … but if I had stayed, I would have endangered all of you – especially Serena."

It was, technically, unfair because Peter knew how much his firstborn daughter cared about her youngest sister and when Nerissa gritted her pearly teeth, he had to bit back a smirk.

"May I guess?" she asked, still strangely distanced, as if she was holding something back.

"Who am I to stop you from using your brain?" he asked with a sigh.

"Good question," she smiled before she tapped her chin. "Well, my best guess would be the Cretan Secret Service because I had a little bit of trouble with them too," she said.

His eyes widened. "They were targeting you, Nessa?" he growled.

She nodded. "The killers they sent after me were easy to put asleep," she said, flexing her uninjured arm. "Afterwards, I disappeared from the face of the world and they never bothered me again."

"You are taking this a little bit too lightly for my taste," her father said.

"Well, maybe I would take it more seriously if I hadn't seen how Catherina defeated a killer squad in less than three minutes," she shrugged. "I know that the Cretan Secret Service has the reputation of being the best around but what makes them so good if they lose a whole squad against one woman who gets out of the fight without a scratch?"

He got up and crossed over to the window before he sighed. "If they attacked you and sent a killer after Serena, well, I believe things are far more serious than I hoped them to be, Nessa," he said calmly while his fingers tapped against the cool glass. He slowly turned around before he walked back to her. "This may be awkward for you but please remove every layer you wear over your injured shoulder," he said. "I heard from Fullmetal that your wound always reopens when you move too fast or when you get under too much pressure. Serena suggested stitches."

She paled immediately. "Hell, no!" she exclaimed. "Don't do this to me, father!"

He sighed deeply before he handed her a single pill and a glass of water. "You are worrying your sister, Nessa," he said. "And you are also worrying me and Miss Rockbell, so would you please take the pill?"

She glared at him before she grabbed the white pill and the glass and removed her white blouse and the bandages around her shoulder. "I hate you," she whispered.

"I love you too, daughter mine," he smirked.

She glared even harder as she showed her shoulder with the deep gash. "You know that I'll have your heads for this once I wake up, right?" she muttered.

He smiled at her while he waited for Catherina to return. "You got far more mature, Nessa."

She chuckled softly. "They call it growing up, father," she said. "You should try it too."

"…ah, c'mon, Mustang," Edward said while he looked at Jade. They had spent the last hour with circling around each other, searching the weak point in the other's defence. "Deliver the first punch, will you?"

She glared at him, never ceasing in her smooth movements, as she moved a little bit closer. "I would be a complete moron if I would attack you that way," she said while she cold night air hurt her hands. She was too used to her gloves, she decided, but since they wanted to settle the issue without alchemy or any related arts, she had left her gloves off to avoid temptation.

"Jade Mustang, I never took you for a coward!" Edward taunted.

She smirked at him. "But you obviously take me for a fool right?"

Alain who was watching the fight (or better: the lack of thereof) from the sidelines and turned to look at Claudio who was also present. "Jade is really special for a Mustang," he said. "She does her work and never runs into a battle without knowing every detail." He grinned widely. "She takes after me in that aspect – oh, and should you ever be dumb enough to hurt her, I will have your head."

"It wouldn't be wise for an amestrian businessman who does a lot business with Aerugo to kill the Aerugian prince, you know?" Claudio smirked while he watched his girlfriend.

"Oh, believe me, I developed many techniques to kill someone without leaving any traces," Alain said.

"That makes it clear where Jade got her absolute control about herself," the prince said thoughtfully as he watched her how she gracefully avoided Edward's first attack. "Oh – and her patience too."

"Amazing, right?" Alain smiled proudly. "She worked hard for this, of course."

Edward, however, wasn't happy at all about his actual situation. Jade was fast, much faster than him, and very agile because she had no heavy automail-leg that could keep her from moving as fast and as elegant as she wanted to. The younger alchemist found himself losing his energy considerable fast while his opponent, the annoying woman, was still up and didn't seem to get tired.

"Brother, stop this," Alphonse sighed. "You start to embarrass yourself. She has more experience."

"I'll get her down!" Edward yelled. "Honestly, there has to be a way!"

"Distract her if you want to win," Phil said lazily while he looked up from his book, "but to distract her, you would have to know her fears – which you don't know. So I agree with Alphonse: give up before my big sister beats you up. She is way too strong for you at the moment."

"I wish I was," Jade muttered, "but I am not as good in shape as I am supposed to be."

"You aren't head of the state alchemists for nothing, Jade," Phil said. "Prove why you are the boss!"

"Hey, let's make a deal out of this," Edward grinned. "Should I win, I get your position."

"And where is the reward for me should I win?" she asked. "Furthermore: I don't gamble."

"Alright, let's lower the stakes," the blond man said. "When you win, I make sure that you get a nice little surprise from Claudio … and should I win, you make Win's hair on the wedding."

"You just got yourself a deal," she grinned.

Victoria sat in the room and had her arms wrapped around herself while Nick's head rested on her lap while Elicia's head was on her shoulder. The redhead sighed deeply as she looked at Laila and Cai who leaned against the other wall while Owen lay on the floor.

"Aunty Serena surely has a way with babysitting," Victoria complained. "I wished she would have showed us some remarkable alchemy tricks."

"She promised daddy that she wouldn't do this," Laila sighed. "I wished she would ignore the rule…"

"…like aunty Jade, yeah," the red-haired girl muttered. "And I am still angry that Grandfather doesn't allow me to help him with Nerissa's shoulder. I mean, I proved that I can help, right?"

"Ah, don't worry, Vicky," Owen said as he smiled at her. "I am sure that he worries about you. The last time, you went way too far and you were tired for three days afterwards … and then you nearly died when these fanatics decided that it would be cool to set the house aflame."

AN: Whoa, I managed to edit and improve hundred chapters so far. That makes me very happy. I would be even happier if at least one or two people might drop a few words. For the Guest who mentioned that organised sport wasn't existent until the 20th century … the story is set in the 20th century and my old sport club was founded in 1847.

Ava