Chapter 29: Sick Day

"So we're having a birthday party in two days," Anya saw Mr. Hughes wiggle as he stood on their front door step, "You've become such a close set of friends to us, that we would love to have you all over for it."

"That sounds really nice," Mama smiled and nodded at the man, who gave her a thumbs up, "It's been so long since I've been to a birthday party," she placed a finger to her lips, "Maybe sometime with Yuri," she shook her head, "But that does sound exciting, of course we'll come," Mr. Hughes smiled at Mama, before looking down at Anya.

"So you didn't know Anya during her last one huh?" he said, before asking, "Well Anya, do you like Birthday parties?"

"Yes Mr. Hughes," she said, realizing that saying otherwise might be bad or give something away, "Had one last year."

"We'll," he kneeled down and patted her on the head, smiling, "Let us know when you're having a party, and we'll come on over then too," Anya nodded quickly at that, and Hughes then stood up, and began to walk away, "Tell Lloyd I said hi!" before finally turning fully, and walking right off to his home. Anya and her Mama waved as he began to move into his place, and then they closed the door.

"I hope Lloyd get's home today," Yor looked up at the clock, "He was out all night for work," she shook her head, looking at the clock, "I didn't even know that psychiatrists could work that late."

Papa hadn't come home last night. He'd told them that there had been some emergencies down at the hospital and they had needed his help with basic triage and medical aid. Of course, Anya knew that Papa was really out with his spy friend, and they were researching some weird alchemy stuff. She hadn't seen him last night since he called in, but she was sure that Papa likely had gone to work right after his spy stuff. Sometimes, it was nice to have a bit of a break from Papa's spy stuff too, so if he needed to be gone for a while, that would be okay.

"Hey Miss Anya," she looked over at her mother, who was smiling brightly, and holding her fists together in determination, "Since Lloyd isn't home, why don't I try and make dinner tonight?"

"..."

'Please come home soon Papa,' she thought, as she remembered the attempt her Mama had made at cooking last week. She and Papa had gone to bed sick, and neither of them had been quite able to get through the whole thing in tact, 'Otherwise, I might not make it to the birthday party.'

"I'm home."

Papa's voice was warbly, and even without seeing him, Anya could tell he was exhausted. This was only confirmed when Papa walked into the living room. He had massive bags under his eyes, frizzled hair, and his clothes knocked around him so he barely looked straight. He was slumped over, his fingers barely holding up his briefcase, and his eyes bouncing back and forth across his face. As he entered the room, he fell to his side, and had to hold himself up by using the wall as a brace.

"Lloyd," Mama rushed over to Papa, and grabbed him up by the shoulder, "You look terrible," she placed a hand on Papa's face, and tried to wipe away some of the crust that had begun to develop around his eyes, "We need to get you to bed," she began to lift him towards the hallway to the bed rooms, "Anya, we can make dinner later."

"Anya!" Lloyd suddenly said aloud, his breifcase dropping to the ground as he seemed to make a snapping motion, and Anya stood up straight. He then looked at her for a moment, and Anya did her best to read through his sporadic mind, just as Mama made to pull him further away, and disconnecting their eyesight.

'Anya,' was the first word at the front of her Papa's mind, 'Collapse-experiment,' wait...was he, '007.'

'How does he know!' she felt her jaw drop, and was lucky that her father had already been pulled from looking at her, 'I have been really careful to not say anything about that!'

'Fifth Laboratory,' he thought, and Anya knew. Her father had been at the dark place, where she had escaped from in order to escape being killed by the dark people, like Lust and Envy. He must have been doing sneaky spy stuff there, and so he must have run into something that made him realize she was from there.

'What do I do?' she began to panic, rubbing the her cheeks. She had thought she was in the clear after Lust had left her alone and Truth had helped her figure out her plan. She just had to get through school, and let Papa deal with what was coming up. But now, her Papa was going to be focused on her. She began to spin around as she heard the door to her father's room open, 'I don't know what to do! I don't know what to do!'

After nearly a minute of spinning around, she became so dizzy that she fell over, and laid down on the carpet at the center of the room. She stared at the ceiling above her, the pure white void of the plaster, and she thought about the only one she'd been able to be honest with since she had gotten free from her cell.

'I wish I could talk to Truth,' she thought, before rubbing her forehead with her arms, 'He'd know what to do.'

But she didn't know how to get to Truth. She'd only met him twice, and both times she'd run into the Dark People who made her really sick. She didn't want to get sick again, and she didn't think there was a way to contact Truth besides getting to the void. So...she was most likely on her own to try and get her father from investigating her too much.

"Why is everything so hard?" she asked, as Mama appeared above her. Her face was scrunched in worry, as her eyes seemed to flow all over Anya's body.

"Miss Anya?" Mama asked, "Are you okay?"

'She looks like she may be getting sick again,' Mama's mind was back on the train car when Anya had been knocked out by Lust, 'Oh no, what if she's getting sick too,' she shook her head, 'I don't know what foods to make for a child getting sick,' her mind immediately shifted to Mrs. Hughes, 'Gracia might know, though I won't be able to cook my special recipe tonight if I-'

"Feeling sick," Anya said, trying to both calm any worries from her Mama, and to make sure that Mama was not cooking for them.

"Oh dear."

It was the next morning, and Mama had insisted that both Anya and her Papa take the day off. She had made soup for the both of them, and let them both rest in bed. It had given time for Anya to think about what she was going to do to try and make sure Papa didn't think too much about where she had come from.

"Miss Anya," Yor said, resting her hand on Anya's temple, "You don't seem warm, but I don't want to take any more chances with you being sick," she rubbed Anya's head a little, "With your father so warn out, I'm going to need to run to the store so I can get more of those soup ingredients that Gracia was talking about," she smiled as she stood up, and prepared to leave the room, "We need to make sure you are feeling well so you can go to Elicia's birthday party tomorrow."

Anya nodded quietly, not wanting to speak and possibly give away she wasn't really sick. She laid her head down, and listened for a while. At first, she heard Mama's footsteps move all about the house, both ways down the hall to her room and to the rest of the house. Finally, after what felt like forever, Anya heard the front door open and shut. She decided to wait for a few more minutes, just to make sure Mama was gone, before slowly slipping out of her sheets, and placing her feet on the floor.

'Have to see what he found,' she said, remembering that Papa had dropped his briefcase in the hall. Maybe he found some papers or something that said she was an experiment. Hopefully, she could find that, and get rid of them before they explained more. She stopped as she hit the door, and tried to read the mind of anyone out in the hallway. When she couldn't sense anyone, she opened her door as quietly as possible, and scurried around the door towards the front hallway.

She got to the front hallway, and saw Papa's briefcase had been put up on a chair. She silently climbed up the chair, and looked at it. She smiled when she saw that it wasn't locked, and she pulled the thing down so it was beneath her. She popped it open, and stared at the papers inside. Then her smile disappeared, because there wasn't anything spy related in there, but a bunch of stuff that looked like doctor notes.

'Papa really needs to work on his hand writing,' she thought, seeing how even her own writing was easier to read than his. She shook her head, put them all back in the suitcase, and closed it up so it was in the same spot she left it. She sighed, sad that her best idea for figuring out how Papa had managed to figure out she was an experiment had failed. She marched back towards her room, at least to try and give her some time to thi-

CREEAACKKK

That had come from Papa's room. Anya, feeling a panic as she heard Papa getting up from his bed, rushed into her room, and underneath her covers. She sighed as she rested her head away from the door, and listened as he passed her.

'I'm so thirsty,' and Anya sighed even more as her Papa was clearly not thinking about her at all, 'I didn't get a chance to drink anything since I went off two nights ago,' his thoughts disappeared as he entered the kitchen, outside of her range of mind reading. She did hear the faucet turn on and a cabinet open though so-

'Wait,' Anya thought, 'How can I hear stuff in the kitchen,' she turned in her bed, 'I usually can't hear anything while in be-' to see that her door was halfway open, 'Gah!'

She was about to get up to close the door, when she heard the faucet turn off. For a few seconds, she heard nothing, but then she heard the sound of something being placed down on the counter. And then she heard what sounded like the steps of someone coming down the hallway, so she quickly turned away from the door, hoping that her Papa would just go back inside his room. She heard him get up to his door, but also that he stopped right in front of it, rather than go in. Then she heard more steps getting closer.

'Darnit,' she thought, as she suddenly heard her door squeak as she suspected her Papa had come into her room. She desperately tried to keep her eyes closed, as she heard him take several steps closer to the bed, and then felt the bed shift as a new weight fell on the other side of the bed, 'Please don't be mad at m-'

'Anya,' Papa's thoughts didn't sound angry, so that was good. She could see in his mind's eye his hand reaching out towards her, but stopping a bit away from her, and then pulling back, 'I'm sorry I didn't look more deeply into your past,' if Anya wasn't pretending to be asleep, she would have blinked in surprise, 'Though...I suppose the orphanage didn't have any papers for you, so what could I have used for research.'

For a moment, Papa just sat there, looking down at her. The only thing in his mind was a picture of her face, the name 007, and the word failure slapped on top of it. Then, he reached out again, and rubbed the back of her head.

'I guess this country just has a habit of using little girls for experiments,' an image of a dog-like creature, Nina Tucker from her memory, flashed across his mind, 'I'm so sorry. I have no idea what they did to you, yet you must have spent years in that cell.'

The image of her cell, where she had escaped from all that time ago, passed through her Papa's head. It had been so long, and she had been out so much, that she had forgotten how small it was. Her room right now could hold like four of those cells in it, and maybe five if you really squeezed them in.

'God in heaven,' Papa slowly reached his arms around Anya, and she did her best to remain limp as he picked her up and held her in his arms for a moment, 'I can't imagine being a little girl in a room like that,' he looked down, and Anya was glad to see that there was nothing in his head that made him think she was awake, 'How did you get-I guess it doesn't matter,' he sighed, 'At least for once, there was enough negligence to allow for some kind of small mercy.'

In Papa's mind, they were back at the orphanage, 'to believe you got all the way to East City from here,' he shook his head, looking at the mirror as he held her, 'I guess all your time there is part of the reason you are sick so much,' Anya felt his grip tighten around her, 'You really won't have any place to go after Operation: STRIX is completed.'

...

'I'll take you with me to Cresta,' he nodded to himself, and Anya felt herself blink, 'After this operation is over, I'll be able to take a break, and maybe set up some apartments there. I'll make sure you have a good life, and you will never be-'

"Papa," Anya said out of habit, only for her eyes to open up in shock.

"Oh," Papa pulled her from his embrace, and looked at her, "Sorry Anya, did I wake you up?"

"Ummm," Anya said, trying to think of the best way to keep him from asking too many questions, "I think so."

"Well I'm sorry," and in his head, he did seem sorry. Anya had to guess that learning she was an experiment had meant he had suddenly come to see her a bit differently, and now he couldn't just keep acting the way he had been, "I should have been more careful, especially since you are sick," he laid her down, and pulled the covers up to her hands, "Can I get you anything? Some water maybe?"

"No," she answered, just wanting Papa to go now, and let the conversation die. She was glad he wasn't mad, but still, she wanted to move on so the chance of her giving something more away would go with him, "I just need to lay down Papa."

"Of course."

Papa got up from the bed, and Anya watched as he went to her door. He grabbed it as he walked out into the hall, and began to close it behind him as he left. Only, with only a few more inches left before the full close, it stopped, and then, Papa stuck his head back into the room, and looked over at her as she laid there.

"Anya, you know you can trust me, right?" He seemed worried, even in his head, "If you ever need to tell me anything, don't worry that I might be mad at you, or be scared about me not loving you, okay?"

Anya, looked up, and frowned. Part of her wanted to say she could hear his thoughts...but that would probably be too much. Better to just let him think she wasn't anything special other than where she had been raised, and hope that nothing else came up. That way, she could get through this year, and get out of this country filled with Dark People like Lust and Envy.

"Okay Papa," she nodded, "I trust you."

"Good," he smiled at her, "I'll let you get some sleep," and then he closed the door.

"Wait," Ed felt his eyes widen as he looked at Alphonse, his cheek still stinging after the well earned rebuke he got from Maria Ross, "You say you got your memories back. You remember going into the gate?"

"Yes," Alphonse said, sitting in a chair, next to Denny Brosh, who was leaning up against the back of the chair, his wounded arm in a sling, "It was all," somehow, someway, Alphonse was able to make his arms go wobbly, "And I saw you, and I saw my body get pulled apart and taken by some...thing, and...then I remember seeing you lying in the blood."

Maria Ross had managed to get Ed and Denny into a nearby clinic to get their wounds taken care of. In order to keep the whole thing a secret, the Fifth Laboratory was marked off limits after all, they had been checked into a non-military clinic and Maria Ross had used Ed's bank account to pay for the two to share a room. She had been standing on watch all night to make sure they were okay. She was currently about to fall over, the exhaustion of the whole thing about to knock her out, but still, she had managed to pull of quite a lot to keep the whole thing together like she had.

'Totally deserved that smack,' Ed remembered her fury after he woke up, and her dressing him down for putting he and Al in danger against the orders of Major Armstrong. He had acted like a little punk going forward like that, and after the beating he took, he was lucky to be alive after facing those things.

"PIPE DOWN SHRIMP!"
Ed placed his left hand along his gut, remembering the pain of that thing's knee knocking the wind out of him.

'I really could of died,' he shook his head, before smiling as his attention returned to Al, 'Though that doesn't mean we didn't get anything from this little misadventure.'

"Yeah," Ed then did the same wobbly arm motion, once again showing a great deal of skill to turn his automail into such a twisty thing, "I remember that too," he shook his head, looking at Al, "I wonder how you got them back."

"Well," Al tapped where his chin should be, "I remember we were trying to escape from Barry after Sergeant Brosh got injured," Al pointed back at Denny, who waved weakly, "So while we were running, I just lost consciousness, and when I woke up, I had gotten my memories back," he let out a sigh, falling over slightly, "There really isn't much more than that."

"Wait a second," Ed stopped, waving his hand upward slowly, "Could you take your helmet off, I have to inspect the seal."

"Oh," Al pulled his helmet off, something he probably should be more concerned about becoming normal than he was.

"Huh," Maria said from the other side of Edward's bed, moving forward so she could get a better look at the circle with a strange symbol inside, "So that's what's keeping Al's soul attached to that suit of armor, huh?"

"Yup," Ed leaned forward, and looked at the seal. He suddenly felt his eyes widen, "Al, there's splash of extra blood on the seal."
"What," Al almost seemed to jump up, "Really?" He then stopped, and thought, "Though, when I was carrying Sergeant Brosh, I did feel some of his blood leak into my armor," he then pointed at Ed, "Do you think that the blood-"

"Maybe it managed to complete the seal when I couldn't back when we tried to bring Mom back," Ed rubbed his chin, "So you were able to get a fuller memory of what happened, where you weren't able to before," he shook his head, before laying down further into the bed, "Unfortunately, I'm guessing you didn't get any extra information on how to get our bodies back from that memory, huh."

"No," Al placed his helmet back on, giving it a short twist to make sure it was locked into place and wouldn't fall off, "Though I guess we should be glad that it didn't cause any permanent damage to the seal. If something had happened there, I wouldn't be able to stay connected, and I would basically be dead."

"Wait," Brosh spoke up, pointing at his shoulder, "So, I just so happened to bleed enough to give you back your memories, but not enough to completely cover and destroy your seal."

"Thanks for bleeding the exact right amount," Ed gave him a thumbs up.

"We couldn't have done it without you," Al joined his brother with a similar gesture.

"Wow," Denny felt a large amount of sweat build up on the back of his head, his arm suddenly hurting more again for some reason as he sat there, eye twitching at the brother's chipper attitude, "I'm touched by your support," he let out a groan and laid his head back on the pillow, "Glad I was useful."

"Ahem," the three men turned their attention to Maria Ross, who suddenly returned to her formal military pose, "Now that it appears that the Fifth Laboratory is no longer a pathway to investigate the return of your bodies," Ed felt his shoulders sag at remembering that they really didn't appear to be any closer to completing their mission, "What are your plans for your next steps."

"Man," Ed laid back into his bed, staring up at the ceiling, "I don't know," he stuck his metal hand out toward the ceiling, "Every time it feels like I'm about to get some where," he gripped his hand together, imagining a hand of veins and muscle instead of wires and steel, "It just gets away from us," his hand opened, and there was nothing but air.

CHINK

And then his automail arm lost control, and fell to the bed. Ed stared at the arm for a second, and tried to lift it up. When it wouldn't move, he blinked furiously. He brought up his still human left arm, and rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. He'd foregotten that his arm had collapsed in his fight with those weird guys at the lab, so now...

Now...

"Well, first," he said in defeat, as all three of the others in the room stared dumbly at the busted automail arm, "I'm going to have to make a phone call to Winry."

"Winry? Is she your girlfriend?"

"DON'T JUST MAKE ASSUMPTIONS!"

"Of all the times for the store to be out of chicken broth," Yor sighed, shaking her head as she walked down the main boulevard, "It had to be the time I have two sick people in the house."

She had just gone to the store she had been going to ever since she had met Gracia Hughes, only to find that the most important ingredient for the soup was actually not there. There had been an offer for her to take a normal chicken and make broth from scratch, but knowing her current skill at cooking, she wasn't about to take the chance at making that from scratch. Especially if she couldn't ask Gracia to come over so the woman wouldn't get sick before her own daughter's birthday.

"Now I have to go ten blocks out," she groaned, a place that took her well outside of the Center of Central, and into a place with several empty buildings, and less well maintained streets. This would not be the sort of place she would ever take Miss Anya, but Yor supposed that since the little girl was back home, it wasn't too much of a problem to come alone. No danger when it was just her.

'Even if there is a dark killing intent over there,' her eyes wandered over to a dark alleyway.

Yor had been trained to sense the desire of her enemies to murder her. She wasn't certain where it had come from, but it had been one of the shop keepers best techniques to teach her. It wasn't perfect, if her opponent was hunting someone other than her, like Scar had during the attack in East City, or wasn't actively planning her death, like Solaris at the chateau, then she wasn't able to use it. However, against someone as hungry for blood and death as whatever this one was, she knew he was coming.

She entered the store that the other owner had said still had the broth, and bought it and placed it in the bag. She smiled, thanked the clerk, a nice young lady who had seemed a bit nervous. Understanding that perhaps she was feeling the dread that came from having that sort of monstrous intent around her, she made sure to give the girl a bit of a tip, before walking out-

And turning down the alleyway where the dark feeling was originating from.

For a moment, she walked down it, not bothering to let this stretch out any longer than it needed to. Besides, going further down the main street might lead to either an attack where civilians might be involved, or perhaps let this likely murder continue to hunt the streets unimpeded. Yor couldn't allow a serial murder to just walk free after all.

'I wonder when my next assassination job will come next?' she thought as she continued to walk, all the while using each step to stretch her limbs to get them ready for the fight. She was lucky she had come in walking shoes, since even though she could fight in heels, she wouldn't want to have to explain to Lloyd why she would have to go get them repaired.

"Hello there Missy," her eyes shifted left, and she saw a short, rotund figure emerge from behind the trash cans. It was a suit of armor, with a bestial head and and a long flowing main of hair behind it. It had only one arm, but in it was a massive cleaver, resting at it's side. She stopped, and noticed something strange. Even lacking one arm, this thing was far too light for it's size, "Out for a little stroll?"

'This is like Alphonse Elric,' she noted, noticing that it was walking around far too agilely for a a creature that size, 'So perhaps this is just a soul bound to a suit of armor?'

"Well, I'm sorry to say that this is the last stroll you are ever going to go on," the armor began to bounce as it cackled, pointing the cleaver right at Yor, "Because you have been chosen to be the first in the second line of murders under the artful swing of Barry the Chopper!"

The armor didn't wait for another second, and shot forward, as quick as Yor expected. It held the cleaver high over it's head, and began to bring it down. Yor gave a quick twirl as it came in along the side that didn't have an arm, and got behind her attacker. She looked down for a second, and was glad to see that she had managed to keep everything inside the brown paper bag from the store. She jumped backward again when another swing, this one horizontal nearly cut the bag open. She came to a sliding stop, and then dove left, as Barry brought down the cleaver again where she had been.

"Oh your fun!" Barry laughed, his cleaver swung again as Yor hopped over a trash can, the metal lid caving in from his strike, "Been a while since a lady has managed to dodge any of my attacks like this!"

"Your swings are too wide."

"Wha-" with another horizontal swing, Yor leaned backwards, and as the blade sung right in front of her, she readjusted herself, and placed her leg on Barry's shoulder, and then gave it a mighty kick, "AGHGH!" sending Barry colliding into the wall. He quickly popped back up, and turned around, only to see Yor's foot only inches from his helmet.

CRUNCH

A helmet that was smashed to pieces from the kick, the metal caving in from her heel, and Barry letting out a massive scream as he realized what had just happened. He then swung his cleaver again, and Yor managed to jump back, feeling that Barry had managed to get pretty close this time. For a second, they just stood there, staring at one another. Or rather, Yor was staring, while Barry was probably somehow looking at her despite no longer having a head. She noticed a strange red symbol on the inner part of Barry's neck, and her eyes focused on it for a second.

"I see," she nodded to herself, "So that is where your soul is tied to your body."

"Yeah," Barry again brought up the cleaver, pointing it at her, "That's right," he let out a dark chuckle, "I guess you probably have run into that Alphonse kid, huh?" Yor didn't say anything. No reason to, really, "Well, I guess," he was outright cackling now, "I'll bring him your head! I need a new o-"

Yor hopped onto Barry's arm. She had moved so fast, that the soul in the armor clearly had no idea what had just happened. But really, despite it's strange lightness, this fighter was no where near the level Scar had been on, so this wasn't too dangerous an attack. Especially since she was already past his only defense. She then threw her right hand back, her left arm still holding the grocery bag, and threw it forward, her fingers smashing through the small opening between the strip of armor with the seal on it and the rest of the suit. She then pulled back, and-

RIIIPPPPP

Ripped the piece of armor off the rest of the body. As she hopped back, she saw the now souless armor act as she expected, falling apart to the ground. She flipped in the air, before catching herself on the alleyway. She stopped for a second, and then held up the piece of armor containing the seal.

"How di-what the," she could still hear Barry's voice coming through the piece of armor, "Let me go and put me back on my armor!" it screamed, the piece of metal somehow twisting and turning at his scream, "I need to get back there if I'm going to chop you u-"

"No you don't"

CRUNCH

"GYA"

Yor took a second to stare at the crumpled metal in her hand. The seal had been broken apart by her muscle grip and with it's destruction Barry the Chopper was killed. For a moment, she stared down at the ruined alchemy, and then at the broken metal body. Her mind tried to process the applications of this.

'This probably won't work for Alphonse Elric,' she admitted to herself, 'If I ever have to kill him, the armor is too put together to just rip it out,' she thought of how this one had openings that didn't exist on the younger Elric, 'I would probably have to-' She felt something wet on her left arm. For a second, she felt a panic in her heart, 'Wait, did he cut me?' she remembered that she had just gone out for groceries, 'Ah, I only said I'd be out for groceries, I'll have to explai-'

She stopped, and then held out her left arm, which had no pain. Instead, she finally realized that in Barry's last swing, he'd managed to cut her bag of groceries open. She blinked at it for a second, contemplating that she hadn't been quite as agile as she thought, before her mind finally put two and two together.

"AH! I have to go get more chicken broth!"