"You let down your guard." The brunette stared down at the crumpled figure at his feet, meeting the blue eyes staring back up at him. Fury lined her gaze, her thin layer of windswept hair barely concealing her murderous intent. Not that she could do anything about it, though, thanks to the sword rammed through her chest. "And here I thought you'd be much more of a challenge..."

"I'm such an idiot..." She whispered, moving her gaze skyward. "To be caught by an attack like this..."

"The old man would've been disgusted." He snorted, folding his arms, knowing she wasn't in any position to make a comeback. "You didn't put up any fight..."

"Shut it!" She coughed, blood leaking from her mouth, spraying red droplets across the golden sands of the desert. Brown hair whipped across her face, strands getting caught in her mouth as she opened her mouth to curse the man over and over again.

He was the reason behind everything.

The reason everything went wrong.

"Leia..." The brunette scowled, taking in the woman's pathetic form. "I thought you might be able to at least inflict some damage on me."

"I guess you thought wrong, then."

"Yeah." He spat, anger contorting his face as he yanked his sword from her chest, smirking as even more blood spurted from her body. "If there's one thing I had to say you were good at it'd be survival... I mean, look at you." He stared at the sheer amount of red surrounding them. "You're a monster. Anyone else would be dead from this much blood loss."

"Why thank you." Leia grinned, bloodstained teeth showing. "That's such a sweet compliment."

"Pfft." He snorted, brown eyes peering down at her, surveying her curiously. "Well, I suppose this marks the end of Ithuriel City..." His lips twitched up into a smirk. "Not a single one of you remains now."

"I'll haunt you."

"Ha!" He giggled. "You always were a fun one... It's actually shocking. Out of everyone in the city you actually survived and escaped." He threw his rusted sword to one side. "I would never have guessed anyone would've been able to survive that attack, let alone the class clown..."

"I'm unpredictable, what can I say?" She muttered, wincing as another coughing fit wracked her injured body.

"Yeah." He sat back, looking incredibly bored as he waited for her to die. "Who'd have thought you'd have that disease?"

"I really wish I'd known earlier... then I might've been able to become a properly trained Alchemist."

"You might've been able to defeat me if that'd been the case." He grinned. "Only an Alchemist can defeat another Alchemist on their own. It's a shame you ran out of time."

A smile cracked at her lips, blood trickling down her chin as she took one final ragged breath, staring up at the starry night sky. "If only I could go back..."