Sorry, sorry, so late I know! *dies* D:

But here's another chapter! Don't kill me! *hides behind Envy*

Iamthewaldo: first of all, LOVE your username! Haha anyway, yes I will include lots of backround info in the last few chapters. :)

Ishmael: THANKS!

alchemy's homunculi: Oh they will soon don't you worry. Heehee.

Kashagal and Natures Ruler: It's a vampire! :F

Thanks for the reviews! We're halfway through the story until the sequel! :D

Tuesday, October 2 is my birthday so here is my birthday present to you guys! :)

Chapter 12: Mind Your Mouth

~()~()~ September 16, morning ~()~()~

Camile woke up to fresh bandages and two nicely decorated presents on her lap. One was a cheap, red paper wrapping the other an equally cheap green. They were both the same size.

Bella. Wyatt. Camile smiled to herself. They remembered her nineteenth birthday.

She opened Bella's red gift first. A beautiful silver watch that she had been eyeing in one of the stores in Xing. Now she knew what time it would be.

Wyatt's green present was next. It was an old photo of them in middle school. Camile thought the photo had washed away in the river when they were younger, but apparently her favorite photo had survived unscathed.

She laid her head back on the pillows but shot up as something solid collided with her sore shoulder blades.

It was another gift, larger than the previous two. Purple, her favorite color, and wrapped in a rather crappy fashion. She opened it up to see a gorgeous new shirt just waiting to be worn. Just as she lifted the shirt up to see it would fit perfectly, a note fell out of the box.

Camile,

So, I guess I owe you since we never got to get you new clothes. So here you go. I hope they fit. Then again, you're pretty skinny so I'm sure that won't be an issue. Happy birthday.

-Envy

Camile was in genuine shock. She placed the note back inside the box but didn't realize more articles of clothing folded neatly inside of the box. A somewhat dressy black dress, some leggings, a pair of military green shorts, a pair of matching shirts of violet and red, and one pair of traveling boots.

"So he remembered," Camile mused quietly, slightly scoffing. "Maybe he does have a heart after all."

~()~()~ September 23 ~()~()~

The slight shaking of the train on the tracks was the only sound splitting through the air for quite some time.

Ed and Al nervously avoided eye contact with the Ishvalan for quite some time.

Scar read their mind. "If you have questions, you can ask me. This is my last nicest offer."

"Oh," Ed cleared his throat. "Tell me what you know about T.M.K.?"

"I can't believe how confident you kids are," Scar shook his head. "Anyway, he's just not what you'd expect. All these theories you have about him are right, but they're also wrong. Let's put it that way."

The confusion grew as the silence increased. "So he's everything?"

"In a way, yes."

Al became scared. T.M.K. was everything. He was a phantom, a ghost, an alien, a human, inhuman, a monster, anything and everything.

"Well have you seen the younger one?"

"That one? He's simple," Scar retorted. "He's just a young shapeshifter, like that homunculus over there." He pointed his head in the direction of Envy.

Ed raised an eyebrow. "So he's a homunculus?"

"No," Scar replied plainly. "Homunculi usually don't have blue eyes. The boy is just a shapeshifter; he doesn't age because he was cursed long ago. That's all I can tell you."

The mysterious Ishvalan giving little information was almost shattering to the Elrics. They needed answers soon. They were headed toward Aerugo, knowing full well they were headed right towards the enemy. They needed something.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Bella asked Camile. Camile was incredibly pale in her face.

"Yeah," Camile sighed, eyeing her knee.

"Okay…" Bella said uncertainly.

Camile bit her lip and sighed. The pain had subsided but the lack of skin covering the bullet wound left her feeling sick. The new skin forming wasn't pretty to look at so she had someone else with a strong stomach to put on new bandages for her. The bullet had hit her kneecap and, boy, did she believe that. At first, Camile thought Envy was lying.

But the doctor confirmed it. Her kneecap had been permanently weakened and she would need a metal screw in her knee to prevent problems.

She got back from wobbling to the bathroom, running into Envy on the way.

"Move," Envy sighed.

Camile glared. "I'm trying."

Envy shook his head and tried slipping past her in the narrow aisle.

"Hey Envy?" Camile said quickly.

"Yes?"

"Thanks…for remembering my birthday."

Envy gave her a very weird look for what seemed forever. He made a clicking sound and nearly ran into the bathroom.

"Do you think we can afford going to Aerugo with me like this?" Camile asked, changing her attention to her friend and sitting down.

Bella gave her a weird look. "I don't think we have a choice."

"I didn't mean it like that…"

"I know," Bella replied. "Doc said you should be fine by Monday…don't worry."

Camile forced a smile and rested her head on the seat before they arrived a town near the border of the desert region and Aerugo. The town was split in two sides.

The military didn't need to know that Ed was a State Alchemist, so they acted as discreet as possible. One wrong move and they could be thrown in the cell.

That was just one issue out of about five hundred. Another one was T.M.K. and then his little buddy; a shapeshifter…like Envy. Quite unsettling, considering the little demon could be anything and anywhere.

The group all got settled in a small town near the border of Aerugo. The more small towns the better. Especially in Aerugo.

Realizing how thin everyone was getting, they figured it wouldn't hurt to get some food with money everyone 'borrowed'.

Wyatt went down the road to the market. His shoes were getting worn and filthy. It was still near the desert region enough to be called desert.

Military personnel were everywhere. It was near five o'clock so they had a right to be. By dark they should begin to leave back into the main cities.

Wyatt swallowed a lump in his throat. With his somewhat natural tanned skin he looked partially Ishvalan so he blended in. An elderly woman was convinced he was and began speaking to him in her native tongue. All he did was politely shake his head and walk on.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" a boy shorter than Wyatt almost knocked him over. The boy was obviously not Ishvalan. He had pale skin and curly dark hair.

"Oh sor—" The boy was gone before Wyatt could complete his apology. Wyatt was making his way down the market not four steps before he realized something.

Blue eyes. The boy had the brightest blue eyes he'd seen. He also seemed to be moving inhumanly fast. Wyatt spun his head to see the boy swiftly running down an old alley.

Instinct told him to follow, so he did. Wyatt had to nearly run to catch up with the boy. The boy made a sharp turn into a more open part of the city, obviously the Ishvalan side, for it was barren with no one around.

The boy jumped on a dumpster and into a propped open window. Wyatt read the sign that was in English. It was an old studio.

Wyatt finally caught up several seconds later and snuck around to the back where there was a ledge to some high windows. If he were any taller he'd be dead in seconds.

Wyatt took an empty can by a trashcan and barely took the very corner of it to the very corner of the window. No bullets, no sounds. Wyatt got near the corner of the window and slowly peaked through the edge. His heart was spiraling.

There were sounds of shouting, obviously manly and hostile. Wyatt put his head in a more comfortable position out of sight and what he saw almost confused him.

"Didn't I tell you to get me the things sharpened?" A strange looking man with a bald head slapped the boy.

The boy looked ready to maul the man but spit the blood seeping from his mouth and remained still.

"I did," the boy spat vehemently. "The stupid blacksmith pissed me off so I…improvised."

The man only let out a mocking cackle before slamming his bottle of beer at the wall. "Oh, James what am I going to do with you?"

"Boss says we don't need it yet. We need to find him first."

"Right, right," the bald man lit a cigarette and shoved it into his mouth, releasing a cloud of smoke into the air and vanishing into the dim lights on the ceiling.

"Don't you care?!" James roared.

The bald man let his hands up defensively. He let the cigarette out of his mouth. "Calm down, we'll find him. He's probably near here somewhere anyway."

"Then we have those idiots following after us," James let out shaky breaths of anger. He was ready to commit murder.

"That's suicide." The bald man read into the words quickly. He took another casual smoke of his cigarette before putting out the butt on the table and tossing it on the worn down cement.

James stomped over to a window below Wyatt, nearly startling him off of the ledge.

"They're here, I saw them," James narrowed his eyes in hate, as if he could smell the group.

Wyatt needed to release something held back, deep inside himself, but couldn't find his lungs working.

"Oh did you now?" The man was hunched over a map on the table. It was of the world of Fullmetal Alchemist.

The man made a motioning with his hand. James trudged over and stared at the sprawled out map.

"Here—this is where we're going next—" Wyatt couldn't see what they were talking about because the window was beginning to fog over from his breath.

All Wyatt could hear was quiet murmers. They must've sensed something because their attention no longer preluded the map, but all around the walls.

Without a thought, Wyatt's foot slipped off of the ledge, leaving a small crash against the trashcans below. He held his breath and slumped frozen against the glass.

"Jordan they're here!" James hissed.

The next thing he knew, James was now in the form of a small gray-blue rat charging toward the window with the bald man named Jordan scurrying to hold a gun in the corner of the room.

Wyatt found his mind moving slower than his feet. He half slid, half fell off the ledge and scraped a good chunk of skin from his knees on his way down.

"Ooof!" Wyatt hit his back hard on the dirty cement with a loud thump. His light gray shirt was beginning to get dirty marks.

He got up as quickly as he could without falling again. The sounds of growling from James and the clashing of boots creating friction against the sidewalk from Jordan consumed Wyatt's ears.

Wyatt narrowly escaped a corner when he saw both of them—with more men. He found a roof to get onto and climbed up there using wind alchemy. He followed the roofs all the way to the hotel and back through the front.

"You didn't get groceries!" Camile whined.

Wyatt was breathing so fast, and he looked so worn out, like he had been in a fight with a ghost, that everyone stopped what they were once doing and gathered around.

"There was—there was the little guy, the shapeshifter," Wyatt gulped a breath of air. "And no T.M.K. but some of his—buddies. And I saw a map—a map of this world—they are going somewhere but I-I don't know where, I couldn't see I'm sorry!"

Wyatt was talking so fast and with deep breaths of oxygen, one would need a patient set of ears to comprehend.

"They're coming," Wyatt said at last.

Ed, Greed, and Envy all went by the window and drew back the sheer curtains.

"Then let's give them what they want."

A/N: Yay! 11 more chapters left! That's so cool! :D The story is going to get warming up from here on out and working its way toward the very soon climax. Don't worry Envy and Camile lovers, they will be spreading some love shortly!

Questions, comments, or concerns don't be shy to leave a review! ;)