Beta: TaintedLetter

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Kimblee was certainly a bit of a monster, but he was a polite monster. Already within the first few minutes of conversing with Kimblee, Elizabeth found she preferred his company over Raven's. He had a charismatic way of speaking that drew others in, even if what he was speaking about was casual murder.

His eyes gleamed with a touch of madness, but at times it reminded Elizabeth of her own gaze.

While Elizabeth was certainly wary of the man—he was still enough of a wildcard that Papa viewed him as a potential threat—she couldn't bring herself to outright hate him. Especially since he was acting on behalf of Papa, and he was treating her so nicely.

It was oddly refreshing to talk with someone new who wasn't slimy like Raven, or terrified of her like everyone else.

Especially a fellow alchemist who happened to have read up on all of Elizabeth's published works!

Kimblee, like Raven, and Elizabeth, was on a mission on behalf of Papa. All of their missions were different, but they aligned in that they all had to visit Fort Briggs. Kimblee was officially hunting down Scar and a man named Marcoh. Scar was to be captured dead, or alive, but Marcoh was preferably wanted alive. Raven had to "fix an issue" at Briggs, and Elizabeth had to conduct testing her new fungus.

Her fungus was... certainly dangerous. Fort Briggs would be ideal testing grounds due to its isolation, and environment. The cold weather would prevent it from being able to grow outside of the fort, and since it was so isolated there was a slim chance a civilian would accidentally inhale it.

It was designed to produce unique effects when inhaled by a mammal—specially engineered to target humans. If it worked properly it would trigger a mindless berserker mode in their host, heating up their body temperatures to 43°C (110°F), and beginning the destruction of the brain cells. The "berserk" mode would induce rage—the amygdala would stimulate the hypothalamus—hysteria, and trigger the hyperarousal response (fight or flight). In theory this should turn the human into a "berserker" and unable to differentiate who is ally or who is foe. They would inevitably die from the infection due to the high body temperature if they are not put down first. The fungi would continue to feast on their organs, reproducing inside, waiting for an unsuspecting coroner, or friend to touch the body—and boom. The spores would bellow out of the body, infecting the next person.

It was a perfect weapon for war. All it took was a few spores to end up in enemy lines and it would cause mass confusion, death, and chaos.

The only danger such a creation posed would be if it mutated to be immune to Elizabeth's current antidote.

However, no fungi could withstand the cold of Fort Briggs. Worse case scenario would be chuck the infected out in the blizzard, let them die, wait for the fungi to die inside of them, and then recollect the body to synthesize a new cure.

Besides, there was no true danger as long as Elizabeth wore the proper gear when handling the spores. She wasn't an idiot, she knew how to take precautions.

Elizabeth, Kimblee, and Raven, headed out to Fort Briggs about an hour after Elizabeth and Raven had arrived. They took one of the military cars, with another car following closely behind them with Elizabeth's spores being kept inside.

They were let inside the massive obsidian fortress without fuss, but unfortunately they could not proceed further without General Armstrong, who was apparently indisposed.

The one who came to greet them was a man with dark skin, silvery hair pulled back in a spiky high tail, and wore sunglasses to cover his eyes. He introduced himself as Major Miles.

"General Armstrong will be with you shortly, I apologize for the wait," the man said.

"It's of no concern. We stopped by unannounced," Raven said, smiling. "Have you met my associates? This is the Spring Alchemist, Elizabeth, and this is Crimson Alchemist, Kimblee."

Kimblee tilted his white hat back, grinning smugly at Major Miles, who seemed irritated by Kimblee's presence.

"I could have sworn you were near death in the hospital bed only an hour ago," Major Miles remarked evenly, even as his posture stiffened.

Kimblee placed a hand on Elizabeth's shoulder. "I have this brilliant young lady to thank for my swift recovery."

"Major Miles, would you mind showing Kimblee around? Elizabeth and I have much to discuss with Armstrong that I'm afraid would just bore Kimblee," Raven said reaching out a hand to place it on Elizabeth's head.

Elizabeth immediately snapped his hand back, giving him a dark glare. "Do not touch me."

There was a spark of annoyance in Raven's gaze, but he covered it back up with a fake chuckle. "Yes, ma'am."

Elizabeth felt a shudder of disgust crawl down her spine like a slimy centipede.

'Ugh. I hate this man.'

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

General Armstrong arrived shortly after Raven and Elizabeth found her office.

"Spring Alchemist, it is good to see you again," she said politely, nodding her head toward Elizabeth.

Elizabeth offered the general a sweet smile, curtsying in return. "The pleasure is mine, General Armstrong. I won't keep you long, as I understand Mr. Raven needs to talk with you."

She could practically feel the vexed glare Raven burned in the back of her head, which only made her smile wider.

"I'm here to borrow one of your labs for some military weapons testing," Elizabeth explained. "I've developed a bioweapon that would be disastrous if any accidents happened near civilian population."

Elizabeth swung around the white messenger bag she had been carrying before, pulling out the paperwork on the fungus and handing it over to General Armstrong.

"This is the basic anatomy of the weapon so far, as well as my plans for testing further on," Elizabeth explained. "I know you currently do not have test subjects available, but there are still other tests I would like to do out here with your permission."

General Armstrong flipped the papers, a cold smile curling her lips. "My, my. How could I refuse? There's a laboratory on the bottom floor that you can use. Take my men to help you get set up."

"Thank you kindly for your assistance," Elizabeth politely thanked. "I'll take my leave now."

Elizabeth turned around to head out the door, but something odd caught her attention in the corner of her it was intuition, or maybe something had caused it to move just enough to be noticeable, but when Elizabeth looked up she thought she saw—

'Is that a microphone in the vent?'

Odd, but considering this was a military fort it wasn't farfetched. Security and all that.

Elizabeth inwardly shrugged to herself before heading out the door.

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

It took a couple of hours to hunt down men to help her, and have them carefully move her spores to the designated laboratory. It certainly wasn't as glamorous as the one back home, but it had the necessary parts for Elizabeth to work.

With that being done, she decided to explore around the fort, moving quietly throughout the metal halls. For the fun of it, she practiced hiding in the shadows and moving about unseen, or unnoticed. It reminded her of the fun games she and Selim would play, where she had to hide from him as he hunted her throughout the streets of Central.

Although it had only been a day, Elizabeth already missed her friend.

Her thoughts were abruptly cut off by a strangled cry of pain. The voice sounded alarmingly similar to Raven, causing Elizabeth to quicken her pace down the hall.

"—hy?!"

Raven's pained voice came from Elizabeth's left, and she quieted her footsteps so she could peer through the doorway.

General Armstrong had her sword pierced straight through Raven's arm. In a cold voice, tight with disdain and fury, "Was Smith's arm the left one? The right one?"

"What are you—?!" Raven choked out.

"Growing old is truly terrifying, isn't it, General Raven?" Armstrong drawled out. "Long ago you were probably a young, bright-minded, soldier who had earnest love for his country."

"You can't do this—you were going to have a seat!"

"I don't need any new seat. You're going to vacate the chair that your moldy old ass is occupying, right now!" She ripped out her sword, slashing down on Raven and kicking him into some cement that was currently drying. "Meddlesome old goat."

Elizabeth raised a hand to cover her mouth, her eyes wide with disbelief at Armstrong's blatant act of treason. She couldn't hear much else, but she noticed that none of the other soldiers made a move to apprehend, or stand against Armstrong.

'General Armstrong killed Raven!' Elizabeth's breath hitched, and she took several steps back to hide in the shadows as she thought.

Elizabeth would be the first to admit that she wasn't a fan of Raven, but he was still an ally of her Papa and was acting on Papa's behalf. To murder him was—

—was a direct attack against Papa.

Something clicked in the back of her head.

Elizabeth connected the unseen dots.

Fort Briggs was a powerful fortification. It was isolated from the rest of the military, capable of running independently. There were secrets kept here, and advanced and powerful weapons were being developed here. Weapons that even Central Command did not happen to know about.

'If Briggs were to go rogue...'

That would be beyond dangerous. Armstrong was a capable soldier and could lead her men—who were blatantly more loyal to her than to Papa since they just watched Raven get murdered—against Papa. They had weapons that even Elizabeth didn't know about. They had already murdered Raven, and would likely cover that up.

Papa wanted Elizabeth to test her new weapon at Briggs.

Yet there were no ready test subjects for her.

Which could mean...

Briggs, who was a threat, was meant to be her test subject.

That is the only conclusion Elizabeth could draw.

She had enough spores to spread throughout Briggs, but to set them off—

Elizabeth's hand drifted over to the philosopher's stone that was kept in the inside pocket of her white cloak.

She smiled to herself.

She could make whatever tools needed to prepare this.

Elizabeth set to work.

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Elizabeth had just set up another trap when she thought she heard a familiar voice.

'No. That can't be right.'

But still, Elizabeth was a child, so she decided to investigate.

What did she find?

She found her friend, Edward Elric, having his automail being changed out by his childhood friend and mechanic, Winry in one of the medical rooms of the fort.

'WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE?!'

Elizabeth couldn't stop the blood draining from her face, nor the surge of panic that made her squeak out, "What are you doing here?"

"My thoughts exactly," Winry muttered, rolling her eyes. "He didn't even tell me he was coming north, you know? It's dangerous to wear steel automail up here, you'd freeze!"

'They need to leave.'

Elizabeth couldn't say with absolute certainty that the Elrics were on her side, but she couldn't say they were enemies either. She hoped—and therefore she believed—they were allies. Otherwise why would Papa let them roam free?

Since they weren't outright enemies, Elizabeth wanted to keep their friendship as long as she could.

That meant that she definitely didn't want to use them as test subjects.

Her mouth was dry, and she asked, "Are you staying here long?"

"Hard to say. That hard ass general just threw us in her jail cell," Edward said with a roll of his eyes.

"I'll get you two released, then," Elizabeth said, nodding to herself, turning around on her heel to notice Kimblee in the corner, watching the exchange with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"How exactly are you going to do that?" Kimblee asked, bemused.

"She has no reason to imprison them," Elizabeth said, her eyes narrowing as she recalled Raven was murdered.

'Was he here to collect the Elrics and bring them back to Central? Is that why she killed him? Was she planning on killing me?'

It might be too dangerous, then, for Elizabeth to outright ask Armstrong to release them.

She resisted the urge to scowl in irritation. Maybe it would be easier to just release the fungi and give the Elrics the antidote.

"Still, Armstrong isn't liable to release them so easily. Perhaps if they were assigned another mission, though?" Kimblee suggested, his eyes dancing with dark mirth. "I was originally going to only ask the Spring Alchemist, but perhaps you'd like to lend a helping hand?"

"With what?" Edward asked, his gaze narrowing in suspicion.

"Scar is near here. We need to capture him," Kimblee explained. "You've had your fair share of run ins with him."

"Good," Elizabeth said, pleasantly surprised she might have an opportunity to capture Scar on top of getting rid of Briggs. "You and Alphonse will come with us... and Winry, too."

"Huh?" Winry blinked in surprise at that. "Me?"

"Pardon?" Kimblee raised an eyebrow at that.

"She's a civilian. She shouldn't be wandering around Fort Briggs. We'll drop her off at the train station," Elizabeth insisted. "I'm sure Edward and Alphonse would feel more at ease that way, too, right?"

"Uh—yeah, that'd be nice," Edward stumbled.

"Elizabeth—" Kimblee was about to say but Elizabeth shot him a look that conveyed: Say anything and I will skewer you with my rapier.

It wasn't nearly as menacing as she hoped it was since she still had baby fat on her cheeks and she was really small in comparison to Kimblee. It looked like a puffed up kitten hissing.

Kimblee's lips twitched up in amusement and he shrugged in mock exasperation. "If the mighty Spring Alchemist insists, how can I refuse?"

"Good... good," Elizabeth sighed in relief. "Let's move out as soon as possible."

"Yes, ma'am," Kimblee joked.

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

They moved out within an hour. Kimblee had been the one to arrange the Elrics to be released in their care, and during that hour Elizabeth finished setting up her fungi bombs around Briggs. Unfortunately there were some Briggs soldiers accompanying them, so not all of them would be taken care of instantly, but Elizabeth planned on stealth killing them when they started their hunt for Scar. She certainly packed enough poisons under her winter cloak.

Winry was loaded into the car with Elizabeth, smiling sweetly and thanking the girl for the ride. Edward and Alphonse also thanked Elizabeth for having Winry leave with them, which made Elizabeth feel warm inside.

Seven snow cars were loaded up with soldiers, and seven cars headed out.

When they began their drive, Elizabeth pulled out her remote detonator.

"What's that?" Winry asked, noticing the small device.

Elizabeth pushed the single button on it, sending the radio signal to detonate the bombs.

"Useless junk I picked up," she lied, holding it out for Winry to see. "I guess it belonged to something, but nothing happens when I push it."

"Huh," Winry observed, accepting the device and started to fiddle with it. "Aren't these alchemy marks?"

"Why... yes, yes they are," Elizabeth agreed.

"Wonder what this was for?" Winry mused.

Elizabeth didn't answer Winry's question, looking out the window to the snow covered land.

And knowing that inside Fort Briggs had turned into a living hell, and she'll have plenty of corpses to collect later.

'I guess I'll get to see what the inside of General Armstrong looks like after all.'

(óヮò)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Kimblee is fun. Killing my queen was not fun. *sad uwu noises*

Answer: Explore Japan with my loved ones, and spend as much money as I possibly can to rebuild schools, hospitals, and infrastructure.

Question: What would you do in a zombie apocalypse situation? Are you prepared if it were to happen at this very second?

At the end of the next chapter I think I'll do a recap with the "good guys" and compare the changes from canon to this story.

Reviews are love!