Edward had just settled into his office in Central. He wasn't in uniform, didn't quite care for it still, even at his new rank. Only thing identifying him as part of the military was his pocket watch, that was it. Same old Ed. He sighed and sank back into his chair, humming a random tune. He had gone over all files last night after finally getting the new house up to Winry's standards and had told Al to help her try to find a place to set up an automail shop, since he couldn't. He'd been in Central for only a of couple days. His second in command, Lt. Kain Feury, had taken over for him while he settled in and was now in his own office.

He had started to nod off when he heard a knock on his door. He jumped up and sat up straight in his chair. "Come in," he said, trying not to sound tired, but rather, authoritative and older than he was.

The door slowly opened and a tall blond woman entered. She seemed stressed and a bit tired. Her hair was in a messy braid and her lips were a bit pouty and pink. Her blue eyes spoke of intelligence and ditzyness. "Um…. Hi… I'm Major Valentine, I'm looking for the colonel?" she said, playing with some of the hair that had escaped her braid.

"You're looking at him," Edward said then began looking through some papers, trying to figure out who this woman was and why she might be seeing him. "Major Francesca Valentine, the Dragon Alchemist…. was sent to check up on a mining town," he muttered to himself.

"Yes, sir," the woman nodded, having heard him.

"Oh. Sorry. That was supposed to be in my head," he chuckled. "What did you need me for?" he asked

"I'm back… and reporting in," she said, handing him some papers. "That's all my findings on the mine," she said then handed him some more, "And that's a report on the issues on the train back. Lt. Fuery told me to report on it. I didn't think it was a big deal but… orders," she said.

Edward made a mental note to read up more on this woman. She looked young. Very young. According to her papers… her age wasn't on it. She couldn't possibly be under 14, he knew that. He took the papers she gave him and started looking them over.

The woman stood there, watching him. He felt her eyes on him and asked, "What?"

"Am I dismissed?" she asked politely.

"Oh. Sorry. You can go, I'll just read the reports unless you have something you forgot to put in," he said. First day and he felt like he was messing up.

"Nothing more to report," she said and he waved her off so she left and closed the door quietly behind her.

"For a dragon, she's quite meek," he sighed, shaking his head as he flipped through the pages. Her writing was incredibly neat, he noted.

He was almost finished with reading Major Valentine's report when the door bursted open and in came a short woman of about 5'2" with black hair pulled into a messy bun with two sticks in it, her green eyes full of fire and she was wearing the traditional Amestrian uniform, the shoulder marks on her uniform clearly indicated she was a Lt. Colonel. The uniform looked a bit off on her… maybe because her eye shape and facial structure suggested she was from Xing. It was then that he knew exactly who the woman was. Lt. Colonel Yoko Kumamoto, the Scarlet Alchemist.

"Is something wrong, Lt. Colonel?" he asked, not even looking up.

"Colonel Sawyer let a prisoner go. No explanation. Just let him out," she said. Well… more like yelled.

"What was he imprisoned for?" he asked, "And is it possible he was found innocent?"

"The man was caught red-handed dismembering a little girl and has admitted to all the crimes he's been accused of," Yoko said.

Edward looked taken aback. That's when Yoko stepped closer and put a stack of papers on his desk. "These are files on the guy. Samuel Smith. He has a thing for cutting up little girls, he delights most in killing girls between two and ten, preferably from families that aren't all Amestrian. My little girl is out there, sir. And he was just let out. At this time, my mother usually takes her to the park. I request being let out early to go protect my daughter and you to send someone after him immediately," she said, leaning over the desk towards Elric more and more as she talked, clearly angry, upset and worried.

"You've worked with him, correct? I mean, Smith of course. I think I need you here to help me strategize," Edward said, getting up. "I'll send a some soldiers to protect your daughter, I assume you have pictures of her and your mother so they can be found. I'll have all schools, parks and streets protected as well," he continued as he put the coat to his uniform on, a rare sight but needed.

"I have worked with him but…" she started to say but was interrupted.

"Then we need you. Don't worry, I'll send the best to protect her, he won't be able to harm a hair on her head, I promise," Edward said before making a motion for her to be quiet. He dialed a number, hushed tones were exchanged and then he hung up with a sigh of relief. Without a word about the phone call, he motioned for her to follow him. "You seem like you're good at yelling. Gather everyone into the mess hall, I'll meet you there after a bit," he ordered.

"What about-" she started to protest but was interrupted again.

"That's what I'm working on. My question is would you rather your daughter here or escorted home?" he asked.

"Here," she said.

"Can I have a picture to show Armstrong?" he requested.

"No need. He's met her. Just tell him to go pick up Yukiko, he'll know who you mean," Yoko said before walking away.

Edward tracked down Armstrong and gave him his orders then headed to the mess hall.

Yoko was standing on a table, yelling at everyone. Sawyer was tied up at her feet. Noted. No one messes with the safety of children around this woman, he chuckled to himself. He assumed she had tied him up herself, and didn't blame her for it.

He found Fuery in the crowd and asked for an update and it was confirmed. Sawyer had been tied up by Kumamoto.

"They call her Crazy Kuma around here… just felt you should know that, Colonel," Kain said.

"Is she actually…?" Edward asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Do you think she'd have that rank or even be in the military if she was actually crazy?" Kain said, shaking his head a bit, to which Edward nodded in understanding.

"I see Colonel Elric has joined us," the short woman yelled over the crowd. "We have a known child killer on the loose. He goes for little girls and he's probably worse than Barry the Chopper, because he goes for the defenseless. He was here so we could get a confession, we had caught him red-handed, we just needed confirmation and him to tell us how many and where they were buried. Why was the military involved? He used to be one of us and the little girl we had caught him with was the daughter of one of our own. His name is Samuel Smith. And I know many of us have a little girl we're worried about, wandering this city, whether it's our own or one we've become close to or know someone who'd be destroyed if something happened to their little girl. He needs to be caught," she continued before her eyes settled on Edward's form and motioned for him to come over. "Colonel Elric will give you his orders. Anyone who doesn't do their damned best or hinders our search in any way, will be tied up beside Sawyer and then be tried for releasing a criminal and have to deal with my wrath." She then stepped down and proceeded to leave the mess hall.

"Lt. Colonel, where are you going?" Edward asked, yelling over the crowd.

"I'm going to your office. We'll discuss strategies when you're done here," Yoko said.

"I'm in charge, I'll decide where you'll be," Edward said, which visibly angered the woman more and he was surprised that that was possible.

Edward started giving out walkie-talkies and giving orders, sending some to parks, some to schools, some to homes they knew had children, and many to outright look for Samuel Smith himself. "And answer your walkie-talkies when you are being addressed. Tell us when you see him. Fail to do so, there will be consequences," Edward said, ending his speech then left the mess hall, sending them all off to their assignments and motioning for Feury and Kumamoto to follow.

He lead the two to his office and sat on his desk and motioned for Yoko and Kain to sit.

"How safe would it be to bait him?" Edward asked, looking Yoko in the eyes.

"I don't think that's a good idea…" she said.

"We have some young looking women, I've noticed. You're short enough that maybe you could pass for just a little over his preferred age range from a distance…" Edward said, trailing off a bit as he noticed he was aggravating her.

"I'm not short," she said through gritted teeth, glaring at him.

Edward chuckled. He didn't mean to, it just came out. She momentarily reminded him of himself when he was younger, though unlike himself, she was very unlikely to grow more.

"I AM NOT SHORT!" she yelled then pointed at him, "Ever thought maybe you're just freakishly tall! That the world is just tall and I'm normal!"

Kain started chuckling along with Edward.

"So that plan won't work. Got it," Edward said as he tried to stop laughing. "Major Valentine looks young, anyway we could use that?" he asked.

"She's eight years older than what he goes for and she's unexperienced enough that if he decided to take the bait, she'd be in danger. This is her first year in the military," Yoko said.

"But if she kneeled down and from a distance, could she pass for close enough to his prefered range?" Edward asked.

"Well, yes. If it weren't for her height and figure, she could possibly pass for twelve, but Colonel, she's right. Frankie could easily lose," Kain said.

"How is it being her first year in the military equivalent with her not having the skill to beat this guy?" Edward frowned.

"He was a major, sir. He's been trained to fight well. He doesn't use alchemy, but he's a good fighter and is skilled with a gun. She doesn't have a chance against him. He's older, bigger, stronger and has more experience. Even if she could get up quick enough to land a good blow, Frankie would still be at a disadvantage," Yoko explained.

"Wait… who's Frankie?" Edward asked.

"Major Valentine. It's short for Francesca and she prefers to be called that," Yoko said.

Edward nodded. "So that's out. What if we had someone hiding to protect her?" he asked.

"I don't approve of using her youthful looks like this," Yoko said, frowning. "It could get her hurt."

"Ok. Any other ideas?" he asked, giving up on bait.

"Pictures," Kain said, adjusting his glasses a little. Seeing the puzzled looks, he explained, "We use a picture of a little girl as bait. We hide it in such a way that it's hard to tell then ambush him."

"How are we going to get a big enough picture on such short notice?" Edward asked then seemed to get an idea, "Think Gracia kept some of the pictures Hughes had of their daughter? I seem to remember a big one…." he said.

"No idea…. I think she's old enough though that she has torn them apart or had them removed," Kain said, clearly remembering. "I think they moved away from Central anyway. Who'd want to stay here after all that?"

"Do we still have the old number?" Edward asked, thinking it was worth a shot. He was given the number and he tried it. It worked. He asked the questions and hung up. "No such picture. Elicia was willing to pose for a new one, but she's too old now," he sighed as he flopped into his chair and sank into it.

"Major Jin reporting in," came over the walkie-talkie and Edward picked it up quickly.

"Colonel Elric answering, what is there to report?" he asked.

"Major Valentine is down. She's been shot, I'm taking her to the hospital then heading back out, over," Major Jin said.

"Shot? What happened?" Edward asked.

"We had a run-in with Smith. It was a shoot-out, sir. He got away. I didn't think he'd be armed… but he managed to get a good shot on Major Valentine before she could even plan a defense, over," Major Jin said. There was some grumbling on his end before it went quiet again. It was assumed the grumbling was pain from Frankie.

"Take good care of her and get back to work, then," Edward said then put the walkie-talkie down.

"Roger that, sir," came the response then more quiet from the walkie-talkie.

"He's armed! How and why!" Edward yelled, angry now.

"Why do you think I didn't want Frankie going up against that?" Yoko growled. "I figured he had a weapon stash or something."

"You don't think Sawyer armed him?" He asked.

"I've worked with him for years. Letting Smith go is out of character for him in the first place, arming him would just be too much. I don't think he's the kind of man that would let a child killer out, let alone arm one. We'll know after I have a chat with Sawyer though, but I generally assumed he had weapons hidden or someone willing to supply him with one," Yoko said.

Edward nodded. "I also want you to ask Smith how he got that gun when we catch him," he said. "And Major Jin…?" Edward asked.

"You didn't read all the papers, did you?" Kain asked with a sigh.

"I did. Just some names didn't stick as well as others," Edward said.

"Major Arden Jin, he's not an alchemist. He's a good man and a good shot. He was suspected of dating Frankie a few months ago but it was confirmed that they are just close friends, closer to siblings than lovers," Kain said.

Edward nodded. "She's in good hands, I assume then," he said before the door opened and in ran a ten-year old with big brown eyes and black hair.

The girl jumped up on Edward's desk and sat there and swung her legs over the edge, humming a bit.

Armstrong stood in the doorway. "Yukiko is safe, Colonel. Do you want me to go get Anna and James?" he asked.

"Al and Winry have them covered, no one is getting to them," Edward said. "Thank you."

"My mother?" Yoko asked.

"In the mess hall, she was hungry and wanted to get away from Yukiko," Armstrong said.

Yoko nodded in understanding.

"I take it the girl on my desk is Yukiko," Edward said, to which, the little girl nodded. "Ok. Back to plans…. what do we do."

"We know he's armed now at least," Kain said.

Armstrong started to leave and Edward noticed this and said, "Armstrong. We need you here."

Armstrong nodded and stayed. "Are we well guarded here?" he asked.

"We have all we need here, the rest are gone," Edward said.

"Which means…?"

"We have some soldiers doing rounds, no ranked officers are here aside from us."

Armstrong nodded. "No one knows that there could be a little girl in here?"

"Why would there be? Military base…. why would there be a little girl here?" Yoko pointed out then shrugged.

"Who'd bring their child here during a time like this?" Edward shrugged.

"And if they did, it's a military base, Smith would be outnumbered. He'd never try here, he knows better," Yoko said.

"I got an idea. What if we evacuated a school, did it as inconspicuously as possible and made it look like no one was guarding it?" Kain suggested.

"It'd look like a trap. He's bound to have seen how many people we have looking for him, he won't fall for it," Yoko said flatly.

Kain sighed and hung his head.

Another voice came on the walkie-talkie in Elric's office. It was female. "Target sighted by the playground but we lost him," it said.

"Lt. Ross?" Edward asked, recognizing the voice.

"Yes sir," the voice said.

Edward smiled, but knew he'd have to catch up with her later. "Any shots fired?" he asked.

"No, we just saw him then he left," Lt. Ross said.

Edward sighed, "Ok. Let me know if you see him again and try to trail after him."

"Will do," she said before going quiet.

"Good thing we got Yukiko when we did then," Edward sighed. "Yoko, go check if Sawyer is still tied up and see if you can get any information out of him," he said.

Yoko nodded and got up, leaving the room. Armstrong kept Yukiko from following her mom, having been tasked with keeping an eye on her. And no one wanted the little girl to see or hear what her mother was about to do. The air in the room was heavy, as Kain, Armstrong and Edward knew what Yoko's job entailed. Yukiko didn't seem to notice at all though, and was humming what seemed to be a happy tune.

Yoko walked quickly, her boots hitting the ground hard and her steps echoing through the empty halls. She was headed to where she had left Colonel Sawyer. And there he was, in the same room he had been left in, tied up. Her mother hadn't seemed to notice him, which was good. Her mother was an absent minded woman and for once, Yoko was grateful for that.

She snuck over to Sawyer and dragged him out of the room and to the interrogation room and put him on a chair then ripped the tape off his mouth before sitting on the table in front of him, her legs dangling over the edge.

"You know what I can do, you know my techniques and that I won't hesitate to use any of them on anyone. Let's make this easy and just tell me why you released him," she growled, pulling her hair up in a ponytail as she did so. She then showed him the transmutation circles tattooed on the back of her fingers. He knew what each of them did, he had seen them in action countless times and now, she was threatening him with them.

"He seemed innocent," Sawyer said then ordered, "Now let me go."

"No. He wasn't innocent and it wasn't up to you to decide to let him go. Given what he had been accused of, that'd be under a general's orders or the Fuhrer himself, not you. He was caught in the act, not to mention confessed. He was guilty of all of it. You know it and so do I. So tell me, why did you let him go," Yoko glared at him, her green eyes digging into his soul. She watched for any signs of weakness, anything she could use.

"He threatened my family. I had to do it."

"Bullshit. He couldn't do anything from here and hadn't had contact with anyone since he was taken in aside from people in the military, all of whom are trusted and have proven their loyalty many times. No one you knew was in danger."

He was silent, which only served to piss her off. "You don't like this subject?" she asked, tilting her head to the side before hopping off the table and circling behind him. She turned his chair so that it faced a metal bed that still had a puddle of blood on it. "Any idea where he's going?" She asked before he could answer her first question, but that one was more rhetorical than anything.

"Why the hell would I know?" He growled.

"Because. You let him go, maybe you're working with him," Yoko said before walking over to the table and stuck her finger in the blood. "Maybe you're meeting up with him."

"I assure you, I have no idea," Sawyer said, his eyes on the blood on Yoko's finger.

Yoko licked her finger, tasting the red liquid as she looked in Sawyer's eyes. "Are you the real Tony Sawyer?" she asked. It wasn't like many knew the man much before she had joined the military seven years ago.

"Why the hell wouldn't I be?" the man growled.

"Just a question," she said, waving him off and walking around the interrogation room. "Mind if I get comfortable?" she asked but didn't wait for an answer. She took her combat boots off and slammed them on the table, letting the noise echo for dramatic effect. She unbuttoned her jacket and sat it beside her boots and took her black tank top off, setting it on her jacket, revealing her well-endowed chest that was covered by a black bra and her abs. She stretched and let out a yawn before turning around, showing her dragon tattoo to him as she unbuttoned her pants.

"Please stop. Your female body won't change my answers," Sawyer said, looking away.

"That's not the goal," she said before letting her pants drop to the ground. She had tight black shorts on under her military uniform's pants, so her rounded butt was covered but the scars on her right leg and her automail leg were not. "I'm getting comfortable. We'll be here a while," she said as she stretched her leg muscles.

"Yeah. Right. You think I'll crack over a beautiful woman," Sawyer said then growled, "You think too highly of your looks…"

"Oh? I'm not pretty? Doesn't matter, not really," Yoko said before turning his chair back around to face the table she had her clothes on and laying on part of the table she had set her clothes on and took her pocket watch out of her jacket then opened it, checking the time. "Hmm…. you're wife has probably finished making dinner, right?" she asked as she put her knees up in the air, her black sock-clad feet flat against the table, "I bet you're hungry by now…"

Sawyer merely glared and said, "Damn Xingese women."

"I'm Amestrian too. Don't forget that," Yoko said before sitting up. "Not sure how that's relevant though, unless you're typically tempted by the Xingese…" she said. She hopped off the table and went over to where she stashed snacks and took out some jerky then headed back over to the table and sat back on it. She unwrapped it and took a bite out of it and let out a soft moan to gesture how good it was. "I'm sure I'm right about you being hungry though," she said after swallowing.

Sawyer's eyes were on the jerky in Yoko's hand but he did his best to make it hard to tell. "I'm not hungry," he said.

"The remark about my race… was that supposed to anger me?" Yoko asked, changing the subject, "Because we both know I'm used to that. It doesn't bother me, hasn't in a long-ass time. Remarks like that are usually made by the guilty, trying to anger me so I mess up or kill them instead of getting all the info needed," she said before taking another bite of the jerky. "You know, you've heard me talk about this and how it never works… I'm surprised you'd actually try it," she continued after swallowing again then took another bite. "Or did you think I'd be upset that you don't find me attractive? Another thing you know I don't care about… all guys finding me attractive ever did was give me a broken heart and one time it gave me a kid, that's about it… I really don't give a rat's ass if you think I'm attractive," she said with her mouth full.

Sawyer seemed like he was about to speak so Yoko used her foot to cover his mouth. "Ssh. I'm talking. You just listen," she said. "Perhaps it'd do you better to call my by dead husband's family name, rather than go with the cliche' of 'oh, you aren't pretty' or act like a racist fuckhead," she said, glaring at him before pushing him back with her foot, still over his mouth. She then took her foot away then once his head was back to its usual spot, she kicked him in the mouth. "I do warn you though, call me that and I can't guarantee I won't just torture you until you wish you were dead," she growled before finishing off her jerky. "Aww…. it's gone. And I was considering sharing… such a pity," she said before putting the wrapper up to his nose, "You can at least smell it."

"You know. I always hated how much you talk," Sawyer said, glaring at Yoko.

"And I always hated your face," Yoko shrugged. "Your point is?"

Sawyer started laughing at her and chided, "Aren't you a bit old to be acting so childish?"

"Aren't you supposed to be a high-ranking, trusted member of the military?" Yoko said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You're thirty. Act it."

"As soon as you tell me where Samuel Smith is."

"Behind you," came a voice she knew that sent shivers dow her spine.

"And the plan comes together…" Sawyer laughed as he took out a recently transmuted knife and cut the ropes binding him. "You really should know better than to take me to a room with metal…" he chided.

A/N: Sorry about where I'm ending this chapter but... cliffhangers are nice, aren't they? And it seems like a natural end, like, the anime would totally end an episode right here. And it's a very long chapter... so I don't even feel bad about this :)