Beta:TaintedLetter

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Elizabeth returned to visit Edward and Alphonse the following afternoon along with Maes Hughes who gushed about his daughter's birthday last night. Elizabeth politely listened to his cheerful chatter—he always listened to Elizabeth brag on Selim, so while Elizabeth disagreed that his daughter was the cutest in the world, she would still listen.

Along the way they came across Major Armstrong who had also come to check on the brothers... and to hear what happened.

And what a story did the brothers have to tell.

As it would turn out, both boys had immediately snuck out to visit the fifth laboratory. There, they came across two more transmuted souls bound to suits of armor, some strange transmutation circles, and a bastard who knocked Edward out.

Elizabeth carefully studied the sketch of the bastard Edward had made. Edward had described this vermin as a little taller than him, dressed in a crop top and shorts, with an androgynous face. His hair was odd, coming across as unnaturally spiky, and he had a very strange tattoo.

Elizabeth mentally added this creature to her growing list of scum to destroy.

'I've never had such a desire to murder before,' she thought with irritation. 'Now I have two people I actually want to kill.'

Maybe that's what growing up meant? Wanting to kill more and more people?

Selim and Papa were grown ups and they definitely wanted to kill people.

Selim was the oldest and he wanted to kill the most.

'It must be a growing up thing.'

But wait, Edward and Alphonse were older than her and they didn't want to kill people.

'Hmm...'

"A blood lust that would do the Luxanna family proud."

A chill ran down Elizabeth's spine as Grandfather Crow's words whispered in the back of her head. She could not help but recall that night. She could stop herself from thinking back on the way it felt to dig her daggers into living human flesh, to see the life leave a person's eyes, to hear their last strangling breath...

'Perhaps,' Elizabeth thought, the chill leaving her the more she recalled how much she had already killed for her new family. 'Perhaps it is not a growing up thing, but a me thing?'

Perhaps...

"Ouroboros tattoos, a philosopher's stone transmutation circle, and Doctor Marcoh saying they used stones in Ishval..." Maes mused aloud, pulling Elizabeth back into the present. He was carefully studying the papers that Edward had written up, detailing what he and Alphonse had so far uncovered.

"There are too many mysteries here for just a simple experiment," Armstrong observed.

"And there's no way to investigate any with the lab now being a pile of rubble," Maes went on before he sighed. "If I root around in the criminal archives, something might turn up."

Armstrong picked up another stack of papers, a frown on his face. "I shall look into those who were working under Doctor Marcoh in researching the stone."

There was a knock on the door, halting all conversation as Papa opened it and stepped inside. "Excuse me."

"Papa!" Elizabeth exclaimed brightly, while everyone else nearly had a seizure and rushed to stand in attention.

"Fü-Führer King Bradley, sir!"

Papa used his fake smile—the one reserved to dealing with soldiers he didn't like, but could tolerate. It was practically his default smile. "Ah, keep your voice down. As you were."

Though Papa told them to relax, everyone lowered their arms and offered a partial bow instead, except Elizabeth who kept her curtsy. She knew better than to accept Papa's order to relax in front of coworkers.

"Führer, what are you doing here if I may ask?" Maes inquired.

"What, you ask? Can't a father visit his daughter for lunch?" Papa asked, reaching forward to place a hand atop Elizabeth's head. "I had a feeling she would be here."

'Because you asked me to be here today last night,' Elizabeth thought, wanting to frown but not daring to.

Papa held up a basket with a melon inside of it to Edward. "Here. I know it's common courtesy to bring a melon when visiting a sick coworker."

"Oh... thanks," Edward said, accepting the melon with a flabbergasted expression on his face.

"I understand you've been checking up on the senior staff members, Major Armstrong," Papa went on, keeping his tone casual.

"S-Sir? W-Well, sir, how did you..?"

"Don't underestimate my own information network," Papa said.

"And Edward Elric the philosopher's stone?" Papa asked, his gaze switching to his half-serious Super Duper Mean Glare which immediately intimidated nearly everyone in the room. "How much have you learned? Depending on your answer..."

This set Edward on edge, and he glared hotly at Papa who kept up his half-serious Super Duper Mean Glare. But Papa burst out into a fake laughter. "Hahaha. Just kidding. You don't have to be so defensive!"

"Huh?"

"I know that there is some unrest among the ranks. I think that something must be done about it," Papa said, turning to pick up one of the stacks of papers.

"Oh—that is—" Armstrong stammered out.

"A list of those who were researching the philosopher's stone. All of these men have gone missing," Papa answered in a steely soft tone.

"Sir?"

Papa went on, "They disappeared several days before the Fifth Laboratory collapsed. The enemy is always one step ahead of us. And even with my information network as it currently stands I have no handle on the enemy's size, their objective, or how far they've penetrated us."

"In other words, it's quite dangerous to be poking around," Maes concluded.

"Yes. Lt. Colonel Hughes, Major Armstrong, Elric brothers, and Elizabeth... I've determined you to be those I can trust. I will not permit you to stick your noses any further into this matter, nor speak of it to anyone. Under the present circumstances, when we can't tell friend from foe, you cannot trust anyone! Consider everyone in the military to be the enemy, and act discreetly. However, when the time comes I will have much work for you to do. I hope you will all stand by my side when that time comes," Papa said sternly, eliciting a salute from his soldiers.

"Sir!"

Papa gave a firm nod. "Good. Ah, change of plans Elizabeth. I just remembered that West Command sent in their back office reports for you."

'Don't you mean for you?!'

"General Paperwork has to go back to work, then?" Edward asked in a cheeky voice.

"General?" Papa repeated back, and Elizabeth squeaked.

"N-No! Not General!"

"Hmm... you know, as General you could take on more—"

"Ahhh! No, no, no! I won't have time do your expense reports if you promote me again!"

"Hmph." Papa shook his head, brushing past his soldiers and opening the window. "Well. See you."

As Papa hopped out the window, Elizabeth could only conclude that he had—once again—snuck out of doing paperwork.

Which meant that there would be more paperwork for Elizabeth.

'He's lucky I love him so much.'

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

With Papa effectively shutting down the conversation about the fifth laboratory, everyone switched over to lighter topics. Major Armstrong was the first to leave, with Maes and Elizabeth following behind him after another hour of chatting with the boys.

On their way out of the hospital, though, Elizabeth recalled the good news she had received last night after returning home from visiting the boys.

With a bright smile, and a slight twirl in her walk, she shared the good news with her friend.

"Your first products are really about to be released to the public?" Maes repeated, his eyes wide. "That's amazing Elizabeth! Congratulations."

"Thank you," Elizabeth said, blushing happily.

"So which ones are they?"

"Oh, um... an enhanced version of antibiotics from a plant I like to call Cilly. Blood pills from Hearty, epinephrine—adrenaline—from Zippy, a skin care oil from Moily, and sedative from Sleepy."

Maes reached over and affectionately ruffled the top of her head. "I hope your family is taking you out to celebrate."

"Uh-huh! The hospitals have already bought a whole bunch of them, and Mumma's setting up some greenhouses to be run under the Luxanna name for mass production."

"That's seriously amazing," Maes praised her again. "Do you have some for yourself?"

"Yeah! Actually, I was hoping to give you some," Elizabeth said with a shy smile. "I've been putting together some emergency kits and I thought it'd be something you should have, too."

"Can't say no to that! Why don't you bring it over tomorrow night?"

"Sure thing!"

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

The following night...

Elizabeth put together several emergency packs that she would give to her friends, each small enough to tie around the waist, or slip into a bag.

"Tired," Nina said from her bed in the greenhouse. The small chimaera always grew sleepy when the sun started to set. Elizabeth offered her patient a sweet smile, pausing in her work to head over to Nina's bed and pulled the covers up over her. "Elle, music?"

"Okay, Nina," Elizabeth agreed to, turning on the radio above Nina. This made the chimaera yawn widely. "Get some rest. You were such a good girl today Nina."

"Good girl," Nina echoed happily, her eyes droopily closing as her tail tiredly wagged.

"The best," Elizabeth assured her, lingering beside her until Nina fell into a deep sleep. Once she was sure Nina wouldn't awaken so easily, Elizabeth returned to work bench.

'Hmm...' Elizabeth glanced down at her freezer pack. She didn't need to keep a lot of human blood on storage since she invented her blood pills, but she had to order some extra when she ran out during her experiments.

Now her blood pills had been replenished, and the extra blood she ordered getting a touch too old. She wasn't certain she could use it any time soon.

'I'll drop it off at the hospital after I give the pack to Hughes,' Elizabeth decided, packing away the extra blood packets in a freezer bag. 'They'd probably be able to use it before expiration.'

With that in mind Elizabeth packed up the emergency kit and extra blood and headed out. Since the sun was still out—although it was starting to dip down—she decided to hurry before it got dark. Selim preferred her to be home before it got dark, and if she was out and about on her own he would send his shadows to watch her.

If she lingered too long in the dark he would start hunting her.

Elizabeth quickened her pace, exiting Central Command and heading over to Central Intelligence. She moved quickly through the park, her eyes squinting from the sun setting in front of her.

The streets were mostly empty by that point, and for several minutes she didn't come across another soul.

Until—

She saw an oddity. It made her footsteps falter.

She couldn't see much against the setting sun. An officer—someone in military uniform at least—was standing over a collapsed person in a phone booth.

A drunk? Elizabeth initially guessed until she noticed the officer was holding a gun.

The gun itself wasn't what set her on edge.

But rather there was this instinctive feeling that immediately put Elizabeth into offensive mode. It was an underlying bloodlust that did not belong to a human. A primal, sadistic desire to hurt and kill that made Elizabeth want to curl her lips back into a snarl and dig her rapier into the chest of whatever that thing that looked like an officer was.

What bothered her the most was that it almost reminded her of Selim's and Papa's bloodlust.

'How dare it try to mimic them,' she thought viciously, quickening her pace to move toward the thing.

As she neared, though, she noticed—

She noticed—

It was not a drunk in the booth passed out.

It was Maes Hughes, covered in blood.

Her breathing hitched as her world tilted. Her mind stopped and then restarted in high gear. She scrambled over to Hughes side, forgetting the officer behind her.

'Blood—blood—so much blood—he needs—'

Elizabeth threw her bags down, her hands trembling as she scrambled to reach her freezer pack. Inside was O- blood, packed and ready for use. She pulled out the bags, and rushed to hook it up through an intravenous line.

Her entire body shook violently, terror and anxiety mounting to new heights.

But then she noticed his heart wasn't beating and oh her heart stopped.

'Elec—Electricity. I need—No. Shocking only works when the heart is going into fibrillations For a stopped heart I need chest compressions and epinephrine.'

Elizabeth lurched to her medical bag, fumbling through her hybrid medications. She only had Zippy, but it wasn't as potent as the raw chemical Maes likely needed.

'It's all I have. Oh, God, please work,' Elizabeth cried out, pulling out the vial and loading up a syringe. She pumped it with twice as much as she normally would, and without hesitation she jammed it straight into his chest.

Next she began pumping furious to get his heart beating. She put her whole weight behind the compressions, tears filling her eyes as dread and guilt began to seize her heart.

'One-two. One-two. One-two. One-two. One-two. One-two. One-two. One-two. One-two. One-two.'

She was cold. Colder than she had ever been in her entire life, and never—ever—had she been as terrified. She wished with a fervent passion that Selim was here, because Selim always knew what to do and she was—

She was just a kid.

'One-two. One-two. One-two. One-two. One-two.'

'One—'

Ba-dump.

Weak.

Oh, oh so weak.

But there, like dawn arriving after a terrible storm, was a heartbeat powered through sheer willpower.

It was too weak, so Elizabeth continued her compressions for a few more seconds, salty water dripping down from her face.

But it would die if she didn't fix the errors in the first place, so she let it beat on its own while she set to work.

The blood bag she had originally set up was already almost empty, and she quickly hooked up a new one.

With a beating heart, and blood being given, now Elizabeth could turn her attention to the most pressing injury: the hole in his chest.

From the strangled breath barely escaping Maes, Elizabeth concluded that his lung had collapsed. She ripped open his shirt, saw the ghastly injury, and swallowed back her whimpers.

'Bullet hole, small. Did it go through?'

Judging from the pool of blood below him, Elizabeth guessed that it went straight through, which meant—

'I have to get him on his side, drain the area outside the lung of blood, and patch the wound so air won't go in.'

She first cleaned the hole with her hybrid ointments. When it came time for stitches—for gauze would not work—she hesitated for a split second.

She knew how to do it, but the horror that engulfed her made her hands tremble. She tried to calm herself, taking deep, gulping breaths of air, but found it difficult. Her heart pounded so loudly in her chest that she couldn't hear anything else.

But she had to press on, because if she didn't, he would die.

Elizabeth forced herself to pinch the wound close, and began to sew the skin together. It was a small hole, so only five stitches were needed. She tied it off, placed more ointment on it, then followed it up with gauze.

The wound on his side was next, because it was huge and the blood pouring out if it wouldn't stop.

She had never sewed so fast in her life, and God she wished her hands would stop shaking.

Mae's blood-soaked skin was too slippery, and her trembling fingers could barely keep his skin pinched together long enough for her to stitch. She dumped the last bit of her ointment over it, slapped a gauze patch on it, and used all of her strength to turn Maes over on his side.

As she had predicted, the bullet had gone straight through. There was a small hole in his back, and she let the blood and air flow out of it to inflate his lung.

She was certain he had to be in a lot of pain, with the grunts and faint groans escaping him, but she couldn't stop. She was almost done.

Like in the front, the bullet hole in the back only needed five stitches. Since she was out of ointment, she poured rubbing alcohol over it instead—and he cried out in pain—before she taped gauze over it.

She rolled Maes back onto his back, placing her ear over his chest to listen to his barely beating heart.

'More adrenaline?' Elizabeth thought, frantically turning back over to her med kit to pull out the last of her hybrid epinephrine. She loaded Maes up with another dose, and his heart started pounding rapidly before calming down to a steady beat.

She changed his bag of blood one last time, and sat back with a huff only now realizing the officer from before was gone.

'Did he—did they shoot Maes?'

She was crying quietly, tremors rocking her numb body.

'What—What now? I—help?'

"Help?" Elizabeth whispered, her voice raspy.

"... Hu... wha... on...?"

The faintest voice could be heard from inside the booth, and it took Elizabeth a solid minute before her mind clicked and she realized someone was on the phone.

Call for help!

A burst of adrenaline and emotion had Elizabeth scrambling to grab the phone, her voice cracking as she cried out, "Help! He-help!"

"E-Elizabeth? What's going on? Where's Hughes?" Roy Mustang demanded over the phone, his tone heavy with anger and concern.

"Help," Elizabeth said, hiccuping. "He's—someone—shot—him. Help."

There was a clatter of noise over the phone, a chair falling back as Mustang stood up suddenly. "Where are you?"

"C-Central, outside—outside—"

"Stay where you are. I'll get help to you," Roy instructed.

Elizabeth recalled that the military uniform that stood above Maes before walking away. Terror shot through her and she cried out, "No! Military—shot—shot him! I—"

She thought of Selim, Papa, and Mumma, and wondered if they could come and help her—

'But what if they get shot?'

Oh.

Oh.

The wind was knocked right out of Elizabeth. Her entire world titled and for a panicked moment it wasn't Maes laying on the ground, but Selim.

Her best friend.

Sobs escaped Elizabeth then, and she clutched tightly onto the phone. "Please... "

She didn't know what she was asking for anymore.

Send help? Help that might hurt her and Maes.

Send her friends? Watch them get hurt?

What did she do?

"I'm coming to Central," came a tight, furious voice. "Stay put. I'll contact someone you can trust. Tell me exactly where you are."

Elizabeth gave him her location, and there was a moment of silence before a new voice spoke to her. "Elizabeth? This is Lieutenant Hawkeye, do you remember me?"

Elizabeth swallowed a painful lump in her throat, trying to stop her hiccups. "Y-Yes."

"I'm going to stay on the phone with you," Riza told her, her calm and strong voice soothing the child. "How is Hughes now?"

"I-I tried—I—I did my best—"

"It's okay. I'm sure you did everything you could," Riza reassured her.

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Everything after that was a blur. She didn't know how long she stood beside her catatonic friend as her mind tried to process what happened.

It couldn't have been too long, though, because suddenly Papa was picking her up in her arms and there were officers surrounding the scene and lifting Maes onto a stretcher. Elizabeth jerked in her adopted father's arms, surprised at his sudden appearance and not certain how she was meant to react.

Papa played the perfect role of comforting parent, though, because he kissed the top of her head and gently set her in the back seat of their car.

Awaiting her there was Selim.

Relief washed over her like a warm bath, and she blindly reached forward to her friend. Selim accepted her touch, giving her a smile reserved just for her. "Ellie, are you with us?"

"I'm—I'm—" Elizabeth took a deep gulpting breath. Her emotions were frayed, having been overwhelming just minutes prior. Had she been a normal girl she would have started crying again, but Elizabeth Luxanna was not raised to be normal.

She was raised to be a soldier, a weapon.

So after she reassed that her priority—Selim—was fine, she took one more gulp of air and shoved down her hysteria. She forced herself to stop trembling, she straightened her back, and she said in a quiet voice, "I'm here."

"Can you tell us what happened?"

"Something in a military uniform attacked M-Maes. I pr-prioritized rescuing Maes," Elizabeth said, recalling now she had let the threat escape.

Then a gasp escaped her as she finally realized what would happen to Maes.

"Ellie?" Selim inquired gently as Papa got in the car, and the car started to drive away.

"I—I think I failed, Selim," she said with a whisper. Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut as she thought back over the damage Maes had received. Even with all of her self-discipline and control, the realization of the reality was making her lose control again. "A minute... if I had been a minute sooner the damage to his brain... One minute."

"What damage?" Papa inquired, looking at her from the rearview mirror.

"Whatever sh-shot him was certainly cr-cruel," Elizabeth went on quietly, holding her hands tightly together. "They sh-shot him in the lung, and watched him bleed out while suffocating. His brain was de-deprived of oxygen for a prolonged p-period of time before I could resuscitate him. At a minute your br-brain cells start dying. At s-six you're brain dead. I-It took me a-at least three minutes when I got there, and since his heart was already stopped...

"Four, or five minutes without o-oxygen, at least. D-Do you know what that does to you?" Elizabeth bowed her head, a tremor running through her body. "Even if he survives, we c-can only hope he'll still remember how t-to read. How to say his own name. H-His own wife and d-daughter."

"So his memory will be affected?" Selim asked quietly.

"Damaged. His memory will be damaged."

"He won't remember the past week, will he?"

"Week?" Elizabeth choked out. "He'll be lucky if he remembers who he is! Oh, G-God... what if that was you, S-Selim? All I could think about w-was..."

Selim reached forward and placed his hands on either side of Elizabeth's cheeks. His dark eyes looked at her with the barest hint of warmth, and he said in not unkind voice, "It'll be okay. Let's get you home, and into a warm bath."

Elizabeth sniffled, and he glanced down at her thoroughly blood-stained clothes.

Softly, he said, "Red does not suit you."

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Answer: Hard to say for sure, but I guess I'd go with Greed. And I'd become one if I was on good terms with other homunculi, otherwise no thanks.

Question: If you could live anywhere in your world, where would it be? What about a different world?

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