My plans were finalized. It was the day before I was going to actually prepare for the final transmutation, the most dangerous one. The one that I was sure was going to go right but had so many places that it could go wrong. There was little I could do about it though, I had run calculations, done small test runs, and everything was as ready as it could ever be.

I had stolen a peek at Hughes' medical records weeks before the Ni-no, the Chimera incident. They were the key to part of the success of this venture. The other was how to convince a Homunculus to look the other way for about 12 seconds while I put part of my plan into action. THAT was still mostly ongoing, although what I'd written in my journal to make my plans 'complete' was 'wing-it, bitch'. Not my brightest moment.

My pen was hovering over that particular part of the circle and I was close to striking it out and trying again when a hand descended on my shoulder. I jerked my head up, my eyes meeting Hughes, and he smiled sadly. I panicked for a second, half expecting he knew what I was writing about, but then he spoke,

"You've been here since dawn yesterday, it's almost noon. Go home, go to sleep, and for God's sake, eat something. Alchemy and the military will still be here when you get back."

I nodded, relief stretching through me. It would be nice to sleep if my brain would let me. The caseload the past week had been particularly difficult to wade through, and one of them was a cold case for the ages. A closed-room mystery that would baffle future generations, just like it did me. I had looked through the evidence, the scene, any and all viable witness statements, and when Hughes asked my opinion on what had happened my answer had ended up being, "Fuck if I know."

My report had been worded slightly differently of course.

Stretching out my stiff muscles, I rose from my seat, not bothering to move anything around, it had all been sorted before I brought out my notebook. Truthfully all of my paperwork was done, I could plan and theorize from home. This plan was shot to shit when Maes snatched the journal from where I was attempting to stuff it in my bag.

"Ah, ah, ah. Can't have you working through the night again anyway, Sergeant. I don't want you working on anything, you hear me?"

With a salute, and a bit of grumbling I was out the door, doing my best not to freak out over the lost journal. I knew all of the important stuff by heart obviously, what with my stupid brain, and that wasn't my only copy of the most needed circles, plus it was secure as hell, but my pocket felt empty without it. It was like I was a mother whose child was staying the night at Grandma's, you knew they were safe, you have some peace and quiet with them gone, but still, they weren't in sight…

These thoughts disappeared when I noticed Major Armstrong coming my way. He was a very intense person, which tended to scare people away, but underneath it all, he was sweet and kind, and that was enough for me to like him. That mustache though...I had a journal of assassination plans for people I didn't like with a whole chapter just for that stupid mustache. The only thing stopping me was his obvious love for it. If there was ever a split second of hesitation from him over it, the thing was gone.

I stepped to the side and saluted, as per etiquette but he stopped and greeted me. Nothing too unusual about that but what was unusual was how totally serious he was being when he asked me to accompany him somewhere. I didn't hesitate to follow him. Knowing him from the show, and then in person, led me to trust him more than others. If someone were to be sent by higher-ups to lead me to a dark corner to be shot it wouldn't be the Major.

Our destination turned out to be an office filled with more tech than I had ever seen so far in the entirety of Amestris. It didn't hold a candle to all the crap in a modern American home, or even the average Modern American teenage bedroom, but it was a shittone of stuff for this place. I gazed around in wonder at the stuff, filing away the era some of it came from back in my world, and filtering through what I knew of it, trying my best to move away from anything I knew came afterward. If I slipped and did something too amazing and future-y then they would stick me with technology for the rest of my life and I could kiss Intelligence goodbye.

An officer I didn't know was standing in the middle of the room looking at the tech. When he acknowledged my presence we went through the whole salute routine, then he turned to Armstrong to have him explain. He obligingly motioned to the equipment, and what was unmistakably the recording of a phone call.

"Colonel Mustang mentioned in passing that you have some mastery of Drachman that you learned in your home country. We were hoping that you could use this magnificent skill passed down through your family to translate some worrying interactions made by one of the officers."

I spared a single tired brain cell to be thankful they weren't labeling me a spy and throwing me in jail before I gave a mental shrug and a muttered "What the hell, why not."

I put on the headphones and accepted the pen and paper they handed me, transcribing the conversation with no difficulty. Huh, apparently 'Drachma' was this place's version of Russia. Neat that I now had an applicable skill, not so neat was that my 'I'm not a spy argument' was getting weaker. I handed the paper to the man who had identified himself as Lieutenant General Raven. He was one of the few dark-skinned people that I had seen, apart from the Ishvalan, Scar, and had white hair, and a light grayish beard. He seemed friendly enough, but that gleam in his eye as he observed the paper made me rethink it. But I was again rethinking my suspicion once he turned back to me, I was unsure if the look had even been there in the first place. Of course, my memory told me otherwise, but my two remaining brain cells were busy arguing about uncrustables being a ravioli or not.

Thus, I ended up in yet another dreary office, this time translating written 'Drachman' transmissions. I was hoping that I would actually get home and get to sleep, but I should have known that was unlikely. I was going to have to begin my plan to save Maes whenever I got home next, with little to no time for sleep. Edward and Alphonse could be back any day now, and the burning of the library could already be occurring for all I know. I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of stopping Lust from destroying the building but I had memorized all texts that I had found that could possibly be useful and would be almost impossible to find anywhere else. In a moment of weakness, I had checked out a couple of Hughes favorites a few days ago, so that they would escape the destruction completely. They were sitting safely at home beside my bed which is where I wished I could be…

It was with this daydream of sleep that the man himself appeared before me. He gave me a stern look,

"What are you doing? I gave you an express order to eat something, go home, and sleep!"

I mustered enough energy to give a halfhearted wave at Raven, who had noticed the intrusion and stalked our way.

"Ah, Lt. Colonel. I borrowed your man for the day, I hope you don't mind. She has an invaluable skill that we were desperately in need of."

Hughes watched me struggle to write in a straight line, inwardly cursing the Amestrians who didn't use lined paper, the bastards…

"Lieutenant General, the Sergeant hasn't slept or eaten in days. I had just given direct orders for her to go home."

"Which I overruled...I apologize for the mix-up, I didn't know about the standing orders. Sergeant?"

At the acknowledgment of my presence, I looked up, blinking like an owl in the light that haloed him.

"Go home, you've done plenty here. If anything pressing comes up, we'll find you again. For now, great job, get some rest. You deserve it."

The praise was warming but dulled slightly by the ache in my bones, and the throbbing pain behind my eyes. Leaving the office was mostly a blur, and so was getting home, but I made sure to close and lock the door, all too aware of the dangers of being one of the few females on base, which was now blatantly the main reason I went straight to an apartment before I even became a sergeant. It was easier than building female barracks, or converting male ones and moving those guys around. From those thoughts I strayed to their shitty recruiting tactics that kept out single women, and then I remembered I was in the 1910s and it was a miracle they even let us join in the first place.

I eyed the bathroom and debated taking a shower, but gravity suddenly shifted from pulling towards the center of the Earth to pulling directly to the bed. I managed to kick off my boots and pull off the uniform jacket before falling, promising myself a warm shower and good food as soon as morning rolled around. Something hit me like lightning, and I shot straight up in the dark. Armstrong. He was traveling with the Elrics, but he was at the office with Raven. The Elrics hadn't returned. Envy was in Central already. The homunculi were here.

Elsewhere in the city a certain Blonde was stepping off the train to be met with his new guards, and terrible news.

/././

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