I grabbed a scalpel from the tray where the doctor had set the clean ones, lamenting leaving my service weapon at home. That would be Fullmetal's luck (okay, and maybe mine, too), an interrogation turning into a terrorist attack or something. I clutched the scalpel in a backhand grip in my right hand, debating going silent or invisible, but figured I didn't want to be a victim of friendly fire. Hawkeye seemed like the type who would be able to just sense that I was there. Plus that shit was exhausting and I wasn't entirely certain I had that much more left in me.

I crept down the stairs, taking them slowly and carefully, unsure what structural damage the blast may have caused. My arrival went unnoticed and I spent a few seconds trying to figure out what was happening. Gluttony had changed, drastically, and apparently sucked half the house into his stomach, and was raving about killing Mustang. Joy.

The next blast nearly caught him, almost stopping my heart, but he was yanked out of the way at the last second. Everyone leapt into action, and in a flurry of movement, everyone was gone. Either escaping or fighting the creature. I felt a sting of sadness that hadn't bothered to go upstairs and try to get me out, but I shoved it down. They could have assumed I heard the blast. Honestly, who didn't? Not to mention there were more important things to do than go searching for little ol' me. I picked my way through the rubble and was just in time to catch Edward insisting he had to stay to fight Gluttony.

"-there's no room in there anyway."

I groaned, drawing attention. "This is complete shit. I should have stayed home today."

Hawkeye glared at me, "Yes, you should have. Come here, we could probably squeeze you in between Lan Fan and the Colonel."

I shook my head. "Lan Fan needs as much space for air as possible, and packing a bunch of people in there like tuna isn't the best option. I'll stay behind, I'll probably be needed to patch these idiots up again, anyway. Wouldn't happen to have a spare gun for me too, in there would ya?"

I eyed the pistol Edward was holding out to me like it was a snake, identifying it as old, but reliable. He shoved it at me more aggressively when I didn't immediately move,

"Take it. You're probably loads better with it than I am."

I shrugged, tucking it into my waistband, and commented drily, "That, would be a matter of opinion."

We turned back to the ruckus happening in the forest but Fu called out,

"Wait! Girl!"

I turned, "Names Stephanie. Whatcha need?"

I fought the urge to tack 'Gramps' onto the end of it, reminding myself that he was a fucking ninja who could skin me before I could blink. And that I had never had the urge to call someone anything even remotely like that until I was shoved into this anime hell. He struggled with words for a second before he said, "Thank you for saving my granddaughter."

I waved it off, "Don't worry about it. Doc over there did most of the work anyway. I only dished out a couple of pretty sparks."

I made my escape before he could say anything else, I already felt hella awkward about the whole thing. Edward ran straight for Alphonse, and I watched from the shadows, as he had ordered. I was only to interfere if there was no other option or someone got injured.

Envy appeared, kicking the game to a whole other level. He and Ling duked it out for a while, and eventually he ordered Gluttony to just eat him. Bad idea. Edward was caught in the crossfire, as well as Envy himself. The giant mouth on Gluttony's stomach disappeared and he went back to his usual childish self. I approached him, sinking to my knees beside Al, desperately searching my memory for what was going on. Was it my fault? Did the butterfly effect from my arrival cause Edward goddamn Elric to die?

It was only the large hand that gently shook my shoulder that brought me back to reality. I looked up, and Alphonse caught me up to speed.

"Gluttony agreed to take me to his father, who might know what happened to them and how to reverse it. Could you find the Colonel? Tell him what happened? I don't want to drag you into this."

I shook my head, "Too late now. I don't want you to go alone. But I should report it, get back up for you…"

He decided for me. "Go, Stephanie. You're too tired to keep up with us anyway, you're swaying even while you're sitting down."

It was then that I noticed the panda bear. "Al?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you have a Panda?"

"A panda? You mean this weird-colored cat? I found her, she was lost and alone."

"Alphonse. That's not a cat. That is the smallest Panda Bear I have seen in my life."

"Oh? Have you seen a lot of them?"

Well, on TV.

"Yup. They're bears. They're usually huge. This one is the cutest I've ever seen."

"Good to know." Gluttony started tugging on Al's hand, and I turned around,

"Well, Shit. Which way is Central?"

A few hours and near mental breakdowns later I was stumbling into our office at Central Command. Everyone was gathered there, probably for the update. I sank into a chair, hair a mess, dirt caking my jeans, blood on my shirt. I was trembling, I could feel it. Probably from low blood sugar, I hadn't eaten in a while. I had already ignored my alarms twice while I was in the forest. A soda entered my vision. I looked up, eyes meeting Mustangs.

"Here, you look like hell."

"Have I ever mentioned how awesome you are?"

I popped the top off easily and took a swig before continuing.

"On another note, it's a wonder you ever get dates if that's how you always comment on people's appearances."

My attempt at humor flopped. Hawkeye stalked closer, arms crossed.

"Where are the boys?"

I sat back, head hitting the wall.

"We failed. Miserably. I don't...I couldn't…"

I struggled with words for a second before I put down my soda, took a deep breath, and tried to speak as if giving an informal report (which, I kind of was, but this was unofficial as shit, so-). It was the only way I could form words, by attempting to compartmentalize.

"It started out fine. Major Elric ordered me to stay out of the fight because I was weak from the earlier transmutations. I couldn't fire any rounds because of the nature of the confrontation, everyone was much too close together, and I'm not exactly the best shot. The one called Envy showed up halfway through, splitting up the fighting. Ling was taking care of them when Envy gave the order for Gluttony to 'eat' Ling. There was a blast of some sort, and the Major jumped in the way, trying to save Ling. Envy went after him for some reason, tried to save him. All three were sucked into the things stomach. Alphonse convinced Gluttony to take him to their 'Father' and try to get them back, which is apparently possible. He wouldn't let me come with, said I was too weak and should find reinforcements."

Hawkeye stared at me fiercely,

"So, you let a 14-year-old boy walk away with the enemy that has expressed interest in him several times before, alone, with no way to actually send these reinforcements?"

Damn this woman was harsh.

"Maybe you should have stuck to civilian life in the first place, if you can't handle simple orders like "stay home", in the first place."

I glared halfheartedly. It hurt, but she was right, mostly.

"They're in the sewers. There's no way I would have let Al walk into something alone. I tagged a tracking circle onto Gluttony. I can find him at any time, at least until he notices there's a strange transmutation circle on the back of his shirt."

I shuffled through Havoc's old desk, finding a map, and unfolding it.

"According to the circle, which is experimental, mind you, it can be wrong up to 20 feet and I haven't been able to narrow it down further in testing, he should be around here. Roughly 30-ish feet below ground level, though elevation is always iffy with this shit."

I circled the area he was in with a nearby pencil. I tossed the pencil down on the desk before looking back up at a stunned Hawkeye.

"I might not be military material, but I try to at least be a good friend. Alphonse wasn't in any danger. If I felt power fluctuations from Gluttony signifying the opening of that mouth thing again then I would have changed course and found him, backup be damned."

I grabbed my soda again, limping to my desk. I had fallen wrong when running and hadn't been able to fix it all the way with as shit as I was feeling. I sank into my chair with a sigh of relief, ignoring them talking through plans about what they had just learned. It was early morning again. The battle had taken place sometime near sundown, or dark, I wasn't really paying attention at the time, but I noticed when I was walking back to the city in pitch black. That was part of the reason I had gotten hurt. I grabbed a spare uniform from my desk and slipped out, no one noticing in the rush to figure out what to do about Edward. I took a hot shower, promising myself a good breakfast in exchange for walking and running through the night. My legs were made of fire, and my back was made of pain. I could have slept for a week, but it wasn't my off day anymore. I doubt my brain would have let me shut down anyway. I dressed in my uniform, pulling my abomination of hair into a bun, wet bangs trying to escape. Why did I even have bangs? Because Sam liked them and thought they were cute on me? Maybe it was time to let that go.

I wandered to the cafeteria, grabbing a breakfast sandwich to eat when I got to the office and another soda for when I finished the one already on my desk. I ambled in, unnoticed, and sat down. Chowing down on my food, I observed them. Mustang called out orders for information to be brought to him, or where to place something. My name wasn't mentioned. They still weren't used to having me around. It made sense, it was just these guys for the longest time, and that's hard to get used to. Havoc's name was called a few times. But when he didn't respond Mustang looked a bit lost.

"Havoc, hand me the green folder on the architecture in the sewers….Havoc?"

He looked up, lost again. I sighed, heart seizing, getting up and grabbing the folder, handing it to him.

"He'll be back eventually, Colonel."

I was met with a stiff nod and a terse 'thanks' for the folder. Things calmed down as people were called out to meet with some higher-ups. We didn't think anything of it at first. Until no one came back. The more people who left the more I ended up doing. Finally, Hawkeye left and it was just Mustang and me. He was called out too. When he came back he was pale, following him was an equally pale, but alive Edward Elric. I jumped out of my seat, knocking it over, and rushed to him, checking him over for injuries.

"Edward! You're okay! I noticed some strange activity from the tag I had on Gluttony, but it went out completely a few hours ago. I couldn't get it to reactivate, did anything happen?"

I was treated to a halting story of a strange man who looked like his father and who could turn off alchemy. There was also a bit of the Alkahestry stuff that Ling insisted I was using. Edward sighed,

"It was weird, the circles weren't even near her and she could activate them, and then there was the whole 'sensing the energy of everything' that she talked about. Man, and then the thing with the Fuhrer happened."

Apparently, Bradley is a homunculus, and he doesn't care who he has to threaten. From the teenage mechanic to the soldiers on my team. Mustang was sitting at his desk, head in his hands. I sat back in my seat.

"Well, just me then. I suppose since the paperwork hasn't gone through yet I'm still on Hughes' team, no one thought to assign me somewhere else because officially I wasn't linked to you."

I turned to Edward,

"What do you mean, she sensed the energy of everything, I thought that was how alchemy was done."

He looked at me strangely, and even Mustang looked up from his tiny pity party. Edward spoke slowly, as if I was stupid.

"Of course not, how have you managed to get this far if you think that crap?"

I rolled my eyes,

"Obviously, it holds some truth to it, if the Xingese use it. Ling said that what I was doing was close to 'Alkahestry', whatever the fuck that is. Right after that first transmutation there was...something. I wasn't sure what, but it was everywhere, and I could tug strings and change circles to make it what I needed, it was easier to just feel some things out rather than think them through. Of course, after there was a circle it was easier to reverse engineer the thinking part anyway."

More stares.

"What? Don't look at me like that, it's freaky."

Mustang's head hit his desk. "I'm doooomed."

I looked at Edward,

"What's he on about?" But he was too busy hitting his head against the wall to answer.

/./

'Don't forget .11'
~TimeLordOfPie