"Central! It's good to be back!" Ed cried and stretched as we got of the train. I looked around the station, admitting to myself that it did feel good to come back to the city. I was all for taking a small vacation, but when it came down to starting up with learning alchemy again, I desperately wanted to get my hands on some of the books in Central Library as well. Now that I had updated work in my automail, I didn't have to worry about it holding me down. Of course, it wouldn't have held me down in the past three years either, but I felt different now. I was determined, having struggled so much while thinking about my family, I owed it to Nina to be the best that I could to restore the family that we had together. So I would follow in Ed's footsteps. In Central, when it came time for it, I was going to take the exam to become a State Alchemist. True, I would be what everyone called a dog of the military, but it was good pay. I could make the money I needed to support Nina and myself. Of course, I would help Edward and Alphonse with their mission first. Nina had a good home for now, and my own life could wait.

Being able to talk to Ed and Al on the train had also put me in a better mood, for they both had agreed to help me learn alchemy. I had not brought it up yet that I wanted to take the exam. I didn't know how Ed would react to that. After all, it would be a long time before I could. It took them months of preparing in my family's old library to even think they were ready for it. Luckily, I had just under a whole year to prepare myself. If I worked hard and read up on everything I could from now until then, I was sure I could do it.

"What's the big rush? It's not as if the library's going anywhere," said Armstrong, full of sarcasm. I stepped quicker when I realized that Ed and Al were getting ahead of me.

"After all this time searching, we finally got a good lead!" reasoned Ed with excitement. In a while, I hadn't seen the grin plastered on his face like today. Though I understood how much of a relief that would be. That is, if we were allowed to go as we pleased around the city.

I frowned as a Lieutenant and Sergeant of the military saluted and introduced themselves, greeting the Fullmetal Alchemist. Ed's face fell, for they were referring to Alphonse, thinking that he suited the name better, which was probably true. "I'm used to it by now," he muttered, when they corrected their mistakes. I couldn't help but laugh, abruptly stopping when Edward gave me a glare. "Major, we don't need babysitters anymore. All of us have been fully repaired!"

Crossing my arms as Armstrong apologized, I noticed Lieutenant Ross give us a certain expression. Of course. We were children; children facing adult situations, I thought. How horrible. We must be pitied for our hardships and taken care of every waking moment because we don't know how to face the real world! That was something I had seen in every adult's eyes ever since I first had to have surgery for my automail. Oh, the pity I needed for being such a weak little girl! I scoffed and rolled my eyes.

I followed Ed to the military car that was to take us to the library after giving my suitcase to Major Armstrong. Kindly, he told me he would keep it safe at Headquarters. I knew it would be too much to take once the Elrics and I started traveling again. I thanked the Strong Arm Alchemist quickly and got into the vehicle, Al squeezing in behind me. The three of us were not told the bad news until we actually pulled up to the First Branch, which was now only a pile of smoldering wood and ashes.

Ed gasped and got out of the car. "Scar's on Wanted posters all over town, and several eye witnesses saw him around the area just before the fire started," Ross explained as the rest of us filed after him.

I bit my lip as Ed picked up a burnt book, only to have it fall to bits in between his gloved fingertips. I looked up at the building myself, imagining the place as it once was, standing tall and full of everything I could ever want to know about alchemy. Suddenly that exam looked so much harder to pass than before. "Damn," I cursed, clenching my hands into a fist. It figured that when I had the knowledge just within my grasp, it was taken away again just like that.

"We've been searching all morning," claimed one of the librarians. He placed two boxes of books in front of us. "These were all we could recover."

Ed and I searched through the boxes carefully. There were hardly ten books in the one I looked through. I tried my best to read the titles and authors' names on them, but I never spotted anything by Tim Marcoh, or any other author that knew of alchemy for that matter. "Is it possible that someone has it checked out right now?" I asked the other librarian, who held a copy of the list of every author found in the main building.

"Yes," she answered. "But all the records were destroyed in the fire."

I frowned. "Right," I muttered, piling the scarce amount of books back into the box.

"Last time I was here I remember a mousy girl with glasses," said Ed, after asking if anyone else may have known about the book's whereabouts, or if it had even been in the building at all before the fire.

"Oh, you're talking about Sheska," replied the librarian. "Though you must not have been here that recently because she was let go."

After thinking about it, I slightly remembered the girl Ed was talking about. Though it had been years since I had last come to that part of the library. Because it only allowed State Alchemists inside, it was one of the days my father had let me go outside after my accident. He needed more books for his research and had told me I could come along. I remembered Sheska as the bookworm who had found him thirteen different books in less than five minutes. She knew exactly where they were without my father needing to tell her half of the author's names. At the time, I just thought she was weird. Now, I was just impressed.

Within minutes, we were on the way to Sheska's house, having gotten her address from the librarians, who luckily kept all the employment records in the main building. The car pulled up to the white, brick house and stopped. Al and I followed Ed out of the car and up the wooden stairs to the front door, where Ed repeatedly knocked- louder and louder- to try to get someone to answer. "Maybe she isn't home," I suggested, just as Ed opened the door a crack. We were surprised that it wasn't locked.

"The lights are on," Ed reasoned with me. The two brothers and I peered inside the house and gasped. Hundreds, maybe even a thousand, books were stacked up inside the house. Everywhere an eye could travel was a new book stacked on top of another. The cover of one of the bound histories filled every corner. I looked around the place, trying to search titles for something I could use to learn alchemy.

We remained at the door, only peering in at the place until we heard a faint cry. "Help me, please? Someone?" At first, none of us knew where it was coming from. It just seemed like a muffled voice appearing out of nowhere. Then, I stared at a few crumbled stacks of books in the middle of the room. All five of us ran into the room and began shoving books out of the way, trying to carry them and stack them back in place again to get Sheska out from underneath the avalanche. When she was finally out with a cup of tea, we were relieved, but out of breathe. "Thank you all so much; I was always told I would die with my head in the book. I just didn't know people meant it literally." Her face fell as she finished. I held in a laugh to avoid making a serious situation awkward.

It turned out that, after all the effort, Sheska had read the book. It had been in the back of the library, and it had definitely perished in the fire. I sighed. "That means that all the good alchemy books were back there too," I thought. "And they're all gone. Damn it!"

"Actually, I could recreate the book for you if you wanted," Sheska suddenly said. "I have a photographic memory and could rewrite every detail."

My head popped up from staring at the floor, along with Edward's. "Can you really do that?" he asked. "Why didn't you say so?"

"Well because people have always made fun of me for it. But if I could be of some help…" She trailed off and immediately went to grab several notepads and pens. When she started, I couldn't believe what I was watching. She was literally writing down every detail from that book. As I watched, I wondered if she remembered books on alchemy that well, and made a mental note to ask her later.

Three days later, to be exact.

Three days later, and Sheska had every single letter from the book written down on about thirty different pads of paper, totaling of about a thousand pages or more. I blinked at the remade book. Was there really that much information out there on the Philosopher's Stone? If so, why was it so hard to find? Of course, I soon found out that what Sheska had reproduced was a cookbook. "No wonder," I thought, flipping through some of the pages myself. Still, Ed thought it was worth something, so he, Al, and I grabbed the notepads and went immediately from the house, but not before I got my word in.

"Sheska?" I asked, just before I was out the door. She stood next to Sergeant Bloch, who held a figure of money that she was meant to be paid from Ed.

"Hm?"

I glanced out the door, where the car was waiting for me. I had to be quick. "Can you remember reading anything on alchemy? Just any book that you could recreate from that library?"

Her face brightened a bit. "Of course! There were a ton of books on the subject there-"

"Great," I interrupted her before she could get carried away. "If you could copy down everything you remember, that would be amazing! I'll come back for them; thanks!" Before she could reply or object, I ran out the door and shot into the car that took us back to the main building of the library, heaving a sigh.

Ed's theory was that Marcoh's cookbook was written in some kind of code. Our job now was to crack the thing and figure out what everything really meant. For hours, we sat in the main building, writing our own notes from what was actually written in the kitchen manual. When I was in the midst of blocking out some of the columns, I jumped when the door to the room we stood in was thrown open.

I dropped the book I held onto the table when I saw who it was. A tall, dark-haired, smiling Lieutenant Colonel Hughes. He just stood there, waving, and I nearly jumped over the table to get to him. It had been so long since I had last seen him, the closest thing that I had to a real father-type figure. Someone who wasn't obsessed with alchemy or doing work for the military. His fatherhood always showed, especially nowadays when he carried dozens of pictures of Alicia in his pocket all the time. He met me half way into the hug that I gave him. It was incredibly informal of me, but I wasn't a part of the military yet. Screw formalities.

"Hey Kiddo," he greeted. "Heard you got some repairs done."

I pulled away with a smile plastered onto my face. "Yes, I feel great."

"Well that's good," he said, keeping a hand affectionately on my shoulder as he turned to Ed and Al. "Got yourself fully repaired too, Alphonse?"

"Yes, Sir! Good as new."

Hughes laughed, but was abruptly stopped when Lieutenant Ross stepped in. "Lieutenant Colonel, if there were to be an attack here, we could not insure the safety of these children as we've been ordered. They should return to the command center right away." I watched as she said all this with a stiff salute. This woman was starting to bother me. Children? Maybe in the eyes of the military, we were. However, if one were to look deep into our lives, were we really children? Children played outside with their friends and had birthday parties and sat with their families for dinner. Children didn't research for powerful, lost stones or suffer the loss of their parents or get metal parts attached to their nerves. By now, I was sick of people referring to me as a child. I was far from one. "As long as Scar remains at large, security of State Alchemists must be a top priority," she finally finished. I crossed my arms stubbornly.

"Well," Hughes reasoned, to my stubborn horror. "What I'd like to do is give you three extra protection, but with Scar running around and the fire, I've got too many men out hunting and replacing case files."

"Case files?" Ed asked.

"You mean the military records were in the first branch of the library?" I piped in. It seemed like a weird place to store them, but then again, they were secret files. Where better to store secret files than a place that was off limits to the majority of the public?

"Yeah," Hughes replied, frowning. "Suspect lists, crime scene logs, all of it…"

Without a word, I turned to look at Edward. He gave me the same smirk that I was giving him. We were definitely thinking the same thing. "Lieutenant Colonel?" I asked, getting his attention back. "You're in luck."

Giving Sheska the job was a great opportunity for everyone. She could replicate the military case files, and the Elrics and I could stay in the library with the extra protection that Hughes suggested. Ed and I shared a look of equal brilliance when the Lieutenant Colonel gave us permission to stay in the library. I laughed a bit and followed the man outside just before he left. "So," he began. "How are you, really, Maya?"

My smile faded a bit. I sighed. "Better than I was a couple years ago," I replied, though I knew he wanted a better answer than that. "I miss Nina. All the time, and Alexander too." I looked up, expecting to see the familiar look of pity. But that wasn't quite what Hughes' expression held. He knew me, knew that I hated being treated like a little girl. "But I like traveling with Ed and Al. I like feeling that the three of us can do something as amazing as possibly find the Philosopher's Stone."

He sat down on the wooden steps, and I joined him. "I can understand that," he replied, glancing up at the moon in the sky. "But I don't mean that. I mean, are you okay?"

This time, I didn't look back at him. "How would you be if you found out your dad murdered your mom and then tried to do the same to you?" I hadn't meant it to sound so harshly, but Hughes didn't respond right away. I bit my lip.

"In all honesty, I probably would have killed myself," he finally said.

It took me a bit by surprise, hearing him say that. It brought me back a few years, to the summer days I would stare out my window right after my mom had "disappeared" and wonder why she wouldn't come back or why I couldn't go out during the day with my friends anymore. "I thought about it more than once," I admitted. I hadn't meant to say it, even had denied the suicidal thoughts that had crossed my mind for years. "Only because at the time I thought that whatever the afterlife brought me would be happier than what my life did." He didn't look at me or say anything, just waited for me to continue. "But I couldn't. It wasn't for fear, but who would Nina have now if I hadn't lived for her? Who knows if she'd even be alive now?"

A moment of silence. A soft breeze blew through the town, and a cricket chirped a couple times somewhere in the distance before Hughes stood up from the steps. "I'm sorry," he said suddenly. Before I could ask why, he explained. "Sorry that you had to grow up in one night, that you became an orphan and the only mother Nina will probably ever fully remember." I stood up to go back inside, but caught Hughes' last words. "I can only wish my little girl will be as strong as you some day, even though I hope it won't have to be until she's much older than you were."

I smiled to myself and started walking up the stairs. "If Alicia ends up like me," I called, opening up the door. "Don't let anyone call her a child."

On the way inside, I passed Lieutenant Ross. By the look on her face, it seemed that she had heard what I said. I hoped she did.

Once back inside the house, a bunch of notepads and bound notebooks were shoved into my arms by Sheska. "I finished these for you," she said happily. "Only some of the books about the basic things, but I figured it would be good for you to get started with right away." I blinked and looked down at the pads, flipping through one of them with my fingertips. I saw chemical formulas and transmutation circles of all kinds scribbled onto the pages neatly.

My eyes lit up. "Thank you so much!" I cried, knowing this would be plenty for the next few days. I could get started while Ed and Al kept decoding Marcoh's book.

After getting back in the car once again, we were headed back to the library. Lieutenant Ross and Sergeant Bloch sat up front, while the three of us took up the back. I rested my forehead against the window and stared out of it while we were driving with the recreated books in my lap. "So what are those for?" Ed asked me, gesturing to them.

I smiled and looked back at him, placing a hand on top of the pile. "All the basic principles of alchemy," I said. "Sheska wrote it all down for me, and she told me she wasn't even near finished yet."

My smile was returned. "Glad you're so interested in getting started with it again," he said.

I hesitated in replying for a moment, looking down at the books and flipping through the pages again, just to see it all. "Ed," I started. "I want to take the State Alchemy Exam next year."

His smile faded almost immediately. I had mentally prepared myself for him to explode when I told him, but to my surprise, he didn't. His fists clenched tightly on his knees, and Al spoke instead. "Maya, why would you want to do that?"

I turned to the suit of armor. "Why did you two do it?"

Ed answered in a dangerous tone. "We did it because we had no other choice."

"And you think I have a choice?"

Before Ed could answer, the car stopped in front of the library. I got out of the car immediately and slammed the door before either of them could make their way out. Clutching the books to my chest, I wrenched the door to the library open. Sergeant Bloch followed me. I could hear him calling my name, but I didn't respond, instead heading into a private room of the main building and slamming the door. I pressed in the lock with a free finger and spread the books out on the table.

For once, I was begging for the silence.