New rule. If I haven't updated in a month, you all have permission to spam my inbox. Seriously. Do it. I have no excuse for not updating in four months. I did get a job, but only three days a week. There is absolutely no excuse, and I'm so sorry for making you guys wait. I really am. But in good news, I've come up with a schedule for myself. I will update every two weeks. If I cant keep up with that, then at least one update a month, hopefully more than that. I also made this chapter as long as I could. I really hope you guys are still with me, I'm so sorry..

Chapter 15

"Why is this code so damn hard to crack!?"

Ed slammed his head down on the desk, ignoring the now growing pain on the side of his face. It had been a week since they had received the research notes from Sheska. Ed was still a bit surprised at how short of a time it had taken her to finish the rewrite. He was even more surprised at the results he received. The notes were in the form of a recipe book. Edward knew a lot of alchemists kept their notes in the form of a code so they weren't as noticeable, but as a cookbook? It threw him off a bit. Nevertheless, they brought it back to the library and began to work on it. He and Al had worked for at least six days by now, and they weren't getting anywhere.

"I could help you.. If you wanted."

Ed glowered at the girl in front of him. He absolutely refused to let that liar help them with anything. He didn't care how much help she may be, Ed was going to do this himself. Well, with some help from Al. But there was no way he was going to let her help. No way. "We're good, thanks."

Beside him, Al sighed. "Brother, can't you just drop it? You could at least let her help a little bit.. We need all the help we can get. These notes are difficult.."

Ed growled at him. His brother was giving up on him that easily? He stood up. "No! I'm not resorting to getting help from her. Of all people. Not a chance."

Al sighed. "Okay then.. Well, why not just ask Marcoh directly about the notes?"

Ed seethed. Didn't Alphonse understand him at all? "That would be admitting defeat! I refuse to do that!"

Tara huffed. "More like you're too stubborn for your own good." She sighed. "Oh well. I'll just read something then. Good luck with your deciphering." With that, she sat down and grabbed a book that she had gotten earlier. Ed growled under his breath. She was starting to piss him off. If he didn't get some peace and quiet, Ed would get her out of the room somehow. He could bait her with something.. or just throw her out. Or he could transmute a hole in the ground that led to the bottom of-

His evil scheming was interrupted by the door opening. Moodily, Ed turned to see the slightly nervous figure of Sheska in the door, Sergeant Brosh leading her inside. He forced himself to push the evil thoughts away and sighed, calming down. He couldn't act loathing in front of the other officers, though he wanted to. It would be bad for his reputation. And Sheska... What was she doing here anyway? They had gotten all of the research notes from her already.

Sheska bowed to them quickly. "I just wanted to say thank you. Because of the.. ahem, generous amount of payment you gave me, I was able to move my mother into a much better hospital. I'm eternally grateful.."

Oh, was that all. Ed smirked to himself. Yeah, quite generous he was. However, for the effort she had put into the notes, it was worth it. He had plenty money left over anyway. It was nice to help out a bit sometimes as well. Ed couldn't have everyone angry at him, could he? "Ah. Don't mention it. It's not a problem."

Sheska got up and smiled at them. "Well, have you made any progress at deciphering them?"

Both Ed and Al groaned. Sheska must have gotten the point, because she quickly shut up. Ed sighed again. Yeah, they hadn't gotten much closer.. They had gotten off to a good start, but it had crashed pretty quickly. Just their luck.

Al looked at Sheska. "Have you found a job yet?"

Ed smirked as Sheska groaned and turned away. Apparently they weren't the only ones with sour luck. Which was good. It made him feel better.

Sheska looked at them again. She smiled softly. "I'm at least glad that a good for nothing person like me could help out somehow. Thank you both!"

Al started to speak up. Ed was distracted by a flicker of movement from the corner. He watched her from the corner of his eye. Tara had flinched. She couldn't care that much about helping them, could she? I mean geez, this was the girl who had literally lied to their faces since they had picked her up. That was the way she was repaying them. Ed scoffed. If she thought she was going to win their trust just by helping them out, she was in for a bit of a surprise.

Ed turned his attention back to his brother, who was finishing his speech. "Being able to try your hardest to accomplish something is a talent all by itself. Besides, your memory is amazing!"

A talent all by itself, huh.. Ed smiled. Al sure had a way of speak-

He was once again jarred from his thoughts as the door slammed open. Ed growled. Would people please stop doing that!? He turned to face who the newcomer was and blinked in surprise. "Lieutenant Colonel?"

Hughes walked into the room, his hand raised in greeting. "Yeah. Major Armstrong told me you two were here. Nice to see you two again. I thought I'd stop on by."

Ed opened his mouth to reply when a short and very high pitched squeal cut him off. Ed whipped his head around and almost gaped. Tara had stood up, quickly by the looks of it, as the book she had been holding was now sitting at a very awkward angle on the floor. Her eyes were shining, and Ed almost swore that somehow she managed to steal some of Major Armstrong's sparkles. She was staring at Hughes. Ed blinked twice, then slowly turned back to the Lieutenant Colonel, tearing his eyes away at the last second. That girl was weird. No questions. He shook his head.

Hughes must have noticed Tara as well. He nodded to her, then leaned in close to Ed's ear. "So, you finally got yourself a girlfriend?"

Ed had never heard anything so stupid. Him, Tara's boyfriend? Not in a million years! He growled at Hughes. "Shut it! I have no idea what you're talking about." Quickly, he tried to change the subject. "Why are you here anyway?"

Hughes grinned down at Ed. "So, what's up? I told you to come see me the next time you were in Central. What gives?"

Ed smirked. "Sorry. We had something kind of important to take care of first." He sighed. Hughes already knew about their mission to find the stone, but Ed wasn't ready to show him exactly what they were up to.

Hughes just shrugged. "That's okay, I haven't been able to get away from my office in a while either. We have a lot of cases on our hands. They just keep piling up. We haven't even solved the Tucker Chimera case yet.."

Ed looked at the table, trying to shut out all of the terrible memories of the incident. It still bothered him. He couldn't save Nina, a little girl. It tore him up inside. Ed knew it was hurting Al too. He glanced over at Tara, who had blinked, some of her enthusiasm gone. Had she known about Nina as well? Could she have helped prevent her death if she had come sooner?

Hughes broke the silence. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to bring up any unpleasant thoughts." He sighed and sat down in front of Ed. "And on top of all that, the first branch went and burnt down. Of all the luck in the world.."

Ed looked at Hughes. "The first branch, huh?"

Hughes nodded to him. "Yeah. All of our notes and research were being stored there. It's terrible, we don't have any of the materials we need, they were all burned up."

Ed blinked. That was a problem. But.. He looked at Sheska. Beside him, Al did the same thing. They were both thinking the same thing. And after a minute, Sheska got it. Her eyes widened. "Wait, me? You think I could do it?"

Ed smirked. Oh yeah, she could do it. "What do you say, Hughes? The lady here needs some work, and it just so happens she has an awesome ability that you may find to your liking right about now. Right, Sheska?"

Sheska blinked. "Well.. I did read some of the research notes in the library, though I suppose I wasn't supposed to do. I do remember them though." She looked at Ed, blinking. Ed grinned. Perfect. "What do you say then?"

Hughes stood up. "You're telling me that this girl has an amazing ability like that? Thats great!" Ed smiled as he started ranting on about salaries and hours, a frazzled Sheska nodding her head and answering questions. She turned back to them. "Thank you so much! Good luck on the notes, I hope you figure it out!"

Hughes then grabbed Sheska by the collar of her shirt and proceeded to drag her from the room. Ed sat back down, waving lightly. Hughes looked just like a kidnapper, the way he was dragging her from the room.. Ed sighed and looked back at the notes. "A talent all in itself.." He smirked. "Pretty smooth, Al."

Al chuckled beside him. "Well, whenever I look at a certain someone, it comes to mind."

Ed grinned. He grabbed his pen. "Well. That certain someone will continue doing his best." He grabbed the nearest booklet. If it killed him, he was going to crack this code.

~Tara's POV~

Tara sighed deeply, snapping her book shut. It was the tenth day of researching, and close to closing time. Ed and Al were close to their breaking point, she could tell. Ed was half asleep at the table, writing clumisly and scanning over the pages weakly. Al, not needing to sleep, was going strong. But she could tell he was getting tired of this too. Soon though, they were going to wake up, with a quite unexpected truth waiting for them. Tara couldn't figure out if she should stay in the room when this happened, or try to escape.

She already knew they wouldn't take it well. If she left, it would probably go with the timeline. Brosh and Ross would enter, the Elrics would explain and swear them to secrecy, which would later be figured out by Armstrong. If she stayed... most likely Ed would turn his feelings towards her, most likely in an angry fashion. The wise move would be to leave while Tara still could. But for some reason.. she felt that it was just wrong. The Elrics already knew that she knew the secret of the stone. Was it really right for her to run away?

"This... This can't be right!"

Too late. Tara closed her eyes. This was it. "What can't be right?"

Ed stood rigid in front of his chair. All traces of his exaughstion had disappeared. His eyes were wide with shock, his body was trembling. "Come here.. Al, come here.."

Tara knew she wasn't invited, but came over to his side anyway, peering at the notes over his shoulder. It seemed like a recipe to her, just a normal cookbook. It was a lot more than that, she knew. A small portion of the text was circled in red. It said, "Add five cups of water." Tara didn't understand how it could mean human lives. Almost every recipe included water. It was a code, right. But to her, it didn't make much sense.

Al was now staring at the page. His armor was clanking softly. "What does this mean? Brother, are you sure?"

Tara took a step back. Ed turned around, his eyes briefly falling on her. They locked gazes for a minute before he looked at Al. "The stone.."

Tara closed her eyes again. She couldn't stop herself from trembling either, but in a different way. She wasn't scared of the stones ingredients. She wasn't crushed either, like she knew the Elrics were. She was scared of how they would react. She was crushed because they were crushed. She had seen their reactions in the anime many times, but this was completely different. They looked so.. Defeated.

She watched Ed stare at the papers for a few more minutes before he angrily threw them onto the table. He grabbed a few more and threw them to the ground. "To Hell with it!"

Tara flinched as the doors opened. Ross and Brosh came in, trying to comfort the Elrics and figure out what was wrong. Tara didn't pay much attention to them, or the conversation that followed. She knew what was going to be said. Instead, she watched Ed and Al. Al paid no attention to her. He simply kept his head down, no doubt going through the information that he had just received.

Ed explained in a hushed tone to the bodyguards. He then stood up. Tara tensed as he looked at her. Those eyes were there again.. The same eyes the librarian had used.. The eyes that her stepmother used. What would he do this time? Attack her again? Scream at her? Shout? Hit her? Would he do something much worse? She trembled and backed away into the bookshelf. She should have left. Should have ran.

Ed walked toward her slowly, eyes flaring. "You knew.. You knew this all along. Don't deny it. I know you kept it from us. You even have one yourself, don't you?"

Tara fingered the necklace around her neck. The stone was hidden inside of her shirt. He was right, she did have one. But surely he wasn't thinking of using it?

Ed snarled, advancing even more. "Its all your fault. Everything is your fault. You kept secrets from us. You lied to us. You are not trustworthy. Everything is your fault."

Tara backed towards the door. He was right. He was absolutely right. It wasn't her fault that the stone had the ingredients it had. It wasn't her fault that they had found out the way they had. That was the normal timeline. But everything else was true.

Ed growled. Tara felt the air leaving her lungs. She was going into a panic attack. She rarely had these, only when she was terrified. Right now, she was terrified. Ed was so close, so angry. It scared her, what would he do to her now? She needed to escape, needed to flee..

Ed softened his voice to a harsh whisper. "Leave. Now. Before I kill you. Get far away from here."

Tara backed into the door, bumping into it softly. Ed had just threatened her.. This wasn't him talking, was it? Ed would never threaten to do something like that..

His words were confirmed a minute later. Al snapped out of his shock and put a hand on Ed's shoulder, a sharp, "Brother," leaving his armor. Ross and Brosh stepped in front of Tara protectively, just in case. Tara herself stood there. He had threatened her. Potentially threatened to kill her. Edward Elric. The Fullmetal Alchemist.

There was no other option that Tara could think of. She couldn't try reasoning. It was futile. She turned and opened the door. She could feel stares on her back, knew that words would try spilling out of the others' mouths. It was too late for words. Tara ran out of the room, down the stairs. She ran out of the library, ignoring the librarians warnings to not run in the hallways. She ran down the dark streets of Central, ignoring the cold wind lashing at her skin. She didn't stop running, until she was out of the city, out of the lights. She only stopped when there was only open road, and nothing else. There was nothing around, just wide open space. There, Tara sat down on the ground, right next to the road. She curled up, and let everything out. Tears swam down her cheeks, rushing to meet the ground. Her stomach growled heavily with pain and hunger. Her body trembled. Tara closed her eyes, trying to let sleep take her away. All she wanted was for this day to be over. This nightmare. She was stuck, alone, in an unfamiliar world. She had no way of going home.

She was alone.

Please review if you guys are still reading. Please.. Thank you so much. I promise I'll try not to leave again. If I have upcoming events in which I may not be able to update in a long time, I'll post them on my profile. Thank you guys again..