"SCAR! XIAO MEI!"

Mei's cries sent burning pain down her throat. It was already damaged from coughing up the water that had gotten into her lungs, and the desperate shouts only exacerbated that damage. But she didn't care. She didn't care about anything besides getting to her friends. She flung herself forward without thinking, completely willing to be swallowed up by the earth alongside them, but a massive hand stopped her.

"Be careful, little one!"

The booming voice hurt Mei's ears. She cringed, but what normally would have had her huddling in fear, now only served to rile her up.

"Shut up! Let me go! SCAR!" She yelled, struggling wildly. The man's fingers tightened in response, keeping her firmly in place.

"I cannot do that. I don't know exactly who or what you are, but my duty is to protect civilians and I believe that includes you. I must keep you safe."

"I was safe! Scar was protecting me!" And he would again, she was sure. Scar was big and strong, surely a fall wouldn't hurt a human like him, and Xiao Mei was plenty tough too. It just looked bad because of what happened to the street! Yes, that was it. Both of them would be fine, she just had to find them. Even if they were hurt, she knew alkahestry, she could help their wounds heal, but she had to get to them first!

"I don't know what your story is, but I cannot abide letting you go. Not if it means you will be running into the sewers and to a possible serial murderer."

"I-I don't care what you say! I'm not leaving them down there!" She tried to break free but the man's fist was immovable. A part of her wondered if he could even feel her struggling.

"They won't be left there. I and my fellow soldiers will search for them. So please-"

"Major Armstrong!"

Whatever 'Major Armstrong' was about to request, Mei never heard it. A voice from down the street startled them both, and Mei looked up to see where it had come from. It was the first time she'd taken her eyes off the gaping hole since she had seen her friends disappear into it, and she was dismayed to see that even more blue-clad humans were approaching in the distance. Then the hand encasing her suddenly shifted, and she found herself in complete darkness.

She flailed instinctively, but her attempts to free herself only lasted a moment. Her limbs were all pinned in place, and the muscles around her allowed for no movement. There was barely enough room for her chest to expand with her breathing, and she had to pull hard for even that with her face pressed against the man's palm. The anger and desperation that had burned in her fizzled out as she was reminded of just how vulnerable she was right now.

As her body stilled, her mind raced. What had she been thinking? She had yelled and made demands at a human! One that had fought with a human as powerful as Scar and come out on top. She would have called it crazy if she'd heard of anyone else doing it, maybe even suicidal. She hadn't seen in that way in the moment, she hadn't been able to think of anything besides seeing her friends disappear, of being alone again. Only now did her brain remind her that the man, Major Armstrong could have killed her easily.

He hadn't killed her though. He had tried to talk to her instead. He clearly didn't know what he was talking about, but he'd still talked to her instead of leaping right into hurting her. But she didn't know if that would last, especially given her current position, or what his motivations were outside of tracking down Scar. Had he talked to her because he did see her as a person, like Scar had? Or because he had plans for her, like using her as bait? Either way, all she could do now was stay still, and hope that Major Armstrong decided not to squeeze any tighter.

If someone had told Major Alex Louis Armstrong that morning that he would be holding a person small enough to fit in his hand that afternoon, he would have enthusiastically complimented them on their wild imagination.

When the little girl had fallen out of Scar's pocket and into the storm water, his first assumption was that the man had been hiding yet another pet. One that he didn't trust to run around on its own like the little black and white creature. He saw it start to flail in the water, and was already moving to help it when he heard the sounds it was making. Sounds that sounded much closer to words than any animal noise he'd ever heard, which made him pull up short.

Thankfully he'd broken out of his confusion quick enough to pluck the little being from the water before the storm drain could claim it. He let the little one lay in his palm, and couldn't help but marvel at what he saw. The arms, legs, head, and hair; no doll maker could have made a more perfect version of a miniature human if they had tried. Getting a closer look now, he was fairly certain this little one was a 'she', and he watched in both fascination and concern as she proceeded to cough up more water than he'd thought such tiny lungs should be able to hold.

He could tell she was terrified the moment he drew her attention. She had looked up at him, eyes wide with fear and confusion, and he'd felt his heart clench. He'd thought his time causing such expressions on innocent children had ended when he was sent away from the front lines of the Ishvalan War.

She flinched away from his touch, and he didn't blame her for the reaction. After spending who knew how long with a suspected murderer, and then getting caught up in their fight, she had every right to be scared. When she yelled at the small furred creature to get away, he felt his suspicions were confirmed. That even if she was scared of himself, she was still using the distance to try and ward off the pet of her captor. Perhaps the animal had even been used to keep her in line when the suspect himself could not be present.

He'd wanted to comfort her, reassure her that she was safe with him and he wouldn't let anyone hurt her. He hadn't gotten the chance before the suspect woke back up, and their respective alchemy combined in such a disastrous way.

He hadn't expected the tiny girl to react so badly to seeing the two disappear below the ground, and he didn't have time to try and figure it out before other soldiers from his department caught sight of them. He looked at the little girl, and made a decision. He quickly maneuvered her so that she would be completely hidden from sight when he closed his hand, so the others wouldn't see her. He had no idea how the girl would react to even more people, or how they would react to her, so it was best to hide her from view. He regretted that he couldn't give her more freedom of movement, but if he simply put her in his pocket or some such, then she might continue trying to throw herself into the debris while he was distracted.

"Major Armstrong, sir!" The lead soldier came up to him, and Armstrong only vaguely recognized him. He must have been one of the many soldiers transferred from other cities to help with the chaos. The young man took in the scene with wide eyes. "Good God, sir, what happened here?"

"There was a mighty battle!" Armstrong declared. "I caught up with the scarred murderer, and as expected he refused to be taken in for questioning. So I deployed the alchemy that has been passed down the Armstrong family for generations! Unfortunately, he had his own destructive version of alchemy, one that, as you can see, reacted badly with my own."

"I can see that..." the soldier said, eyeing the rubble "but what happened to the suspect? Where is he now?"

"He fell victim to the clashing of our alchemy, quite literally. He and his small animal companion fell through the ground and into the sewer below. We shall require the assistance of many more soldiers if we hope to make our way down and find out their fate."

"Yes, of course, sir, I'll send one of my men to call for-"

"No need! Since I am the one with the most information, I shall go call on reinforcements. You and your men work on establishing a perimeter, to keep civilians away from the damage and danger."

"Yes, sir!"

"Now tell me, do you know where the nearest radio is?"

After being given directions, Armstrong sped off. Once he was sure he was out of sight of the other soldiers, he stopped, looked around to be sure no one was watching, and stepped into the nearest alley. He took a deep breath, then brought his hand up and opened it.

"My apologies for the abrupt-goodness! Are you alright, little one?"

The girl was lying on her side, clutching her stomach, and looked paler than he remembered.

"Urgh...you run fast..." she groaned. The stone of guilt that had settled in Armstrong's stomach grew a little bigger. He started to move to rub her back, but remembered her previous reaction and stopped himself.

"My sincerest apologies, I did not consider how my usual running style would affect you. Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"...no. Just having more air is fine."

Armstrong grimaced. "I was going to apologize for that as well. I did not want the others to see you and that was the fastest way to conceal you; I certainly didn't intend for the position to be one of great discomfort."

This time, the girl, did not reply. Armstrong took it as a sign that she still needed a minute to recover, but as the minute wore on he became concerned.

"Little one?"

"...what do you want?" the questions was just loud enough for him to hear.

"Pardon?"

She sat up, and finally looked at him. Her expression was closed off, but he could feel her little hands digging into his palm.

"What do you want? What are you going to do with me?"

"Well, I was hoping to ask you some questions about your association with Scar. However, that could wait until I return you to your real guardian." He squinted at her, letting some of his curiosity shine through. "May I ask, are they the same size as you?"

"I'm not telling you anything!" she snapped, making Armstrong pull back a bit. "I don't care what you say or what you do to me! I'm not telling you anything about Scar or my family!"

"You said Scar was helping you before, yes? That means you consider him a friend rather than a captor." Unless the kid had Stockholm syndrome, but that was something that could be delved into later. "I can understand not wanting to betray a friend, but I do not understand your reluctance about your family. Don't you wish to be returned to them?"

"Of course I do! That's what Scar was gonna do before you showed up you big dummy!" The moment after she yelled this, her eyes went wide. She abruptly turned away from him and buried her face into her knees. She was done talking, it seemed. Armstrong tried asking more questions and offered reassurances, but nothing he said got a response.

This left him in a bit of a pickle. He wanted to get her back to her family, but he had no idea how to do to that. Normally in an event like this, a child would be placed with a government appointed guardian until her family was found and she was confirmed safe from the suspect. But this was a unique case, he had no idea how the military or government as a whole would react to the existence of someone like this child. He wasn't sure who he could trust with such a revelation, especially given the case he'd just been helping with.

However, there was one military man he could trust to never harm a child.

Hughes let out an explosive sigh as he sat down next to Roy.

"I take it the news wasn't good?" Roy asked mildly, not betraying how frustrated he himself was.

"Depends on your definition of good. They came back with some pretty damning evidence, which seems to confirm our theory, but..."

"It all happened a little to fast and with a bit too much convenience?"

"Exactly."

A lot had happened in a very short amount of time. It had taken longer than it should have for all the different military departments to get on the same page, but they'd finally managed it. Not soon enough to have successfully located the fleeing chimeras or the serial killer they'd managed to team up with, of course, but other things had come to light. After word had gotten around that the officer killed during the chimeras' escape was Basque Grande, Mustang's team had been obligated to divulge their suspicions regarding the man's involvement with laboratory 5.

The Investigation departments had been trying to figure out if the Iron Blood Alchemist's death had happened due to simple practicality, to ensure he couldn't chase the escapees, or if there was a deeper motivation at play. Revealing what they'd found in Tucker's journals gave some additional clues, and revealing it had seemed like a good idea at the time. Because this way they weren't accusing the Brigadier General, just coming forward with information that seemed relevant to the investigation of his death. After all, the implications of that journal put into question if the scarred killer had targeted him just as another state alchemist, or if it had been done on behalf of the chimera group. Surely that warranted some investigation, right?

The problem was that the higher ups had jumped onto that tidbit of information too fast. Before Team Mustang knew what was happening, a separate team of soldiers from Central Investigation had been dispatched to search the Brigadier General's home and office. After Hughes sat down, he told Mustang's Team the news that Central Investigation had come back with a heap of damning evidence. Stuff that made it look like Basque Grand was in charge of the entirety of laboratory 5.

"Isn't that good? That means we've got a lot more information than before and that the Brigadier General can't hurt anyone else." Fuery said, looking at his boss's somber face with confusion.

"It's too convenient, is the thing." Fallman explained. "They found all that evidence so quickly it makes you think that he had barely been hiding it at all, which would be very odd. You'd usually hide anything incriminating really well, even if you don't expect people to go snooping around."

Breeda nodded. "Not to mention how quick they were to jump on the idea itself. Normally evidence that flimsy against someone so high up would be taken with a big dash of salt, but they didn't waste any time running off to search through a dead man's stuff."

"So, what? We're thinking that Grande was actually innocent? That someone from the higher ranks is making the most of his death and using him as a scapegoat?" Havoc asked, pulling at a stray string on his pants leg. He could really use a smoke.

"I wouldn't put my money on him being completely innocent, but I'd be willing to bet that some of the Central Investigation officers used the time to get rid of some evidence and plant new stuff. So much easier to sweep any suspicion of other individuals under the rug when it seems that the 'main man' is dead. Cut off the head, and you don't need to worry about what all the limbs might be up to." Mustang was glad that they were the only ones in this office and that the walls were not thin, it made discussing these things much easier.

"And they are trying to sweep things up as fast as they can." Hughes said with a grimace. "They're already moving resources away from the lab 5 investigation and into recovering the chimeras and their new murderous friend, and that includes us."

"What do you mean?" Hawkeye asked.

"We aren't sure which way the chimera group went after we lost track of them. So, groups that were transferred here to help with investigation are being sent back to their original bases to keep an eye and ear out for them, and that includes us."

"Really? They aren't gonna try to make us run after that serial killer with them?" Havoc asked with a raised eyebrow. "Figured they'd want all the help they can get."

"Apparently, the soldiers and alchemists they have here will be sufficient for that." Hughes shrugged. Fuery rubbed his chin.

"It's kinda weird that they don't want to have Colonel Mustang involved in it though, isn't it? With this killer being strong enough to hold his own against Major Armstrong, you'd think they'd welcome the Flame Alchemist's power."

"Oh, you know how it is." Mustang leaned back in his chair. "You get too many strong alchemists together to go after one person and civilians are gonna start yelling about overkill and property damage, especially if you go around throwing fire." Internally, Mustang's feelings were mixed. This could be a sign that the big brass saw his involvement in the case as threatening, considering he was the one that brought the original 'anonymous tip' in, which would be flattering, but that could be a sign that he hadn't played off his 'harmless womanizer' mask strong enough while delivering that tip. He'd have to give that some thought.

He got plenty of time for thinking on the train ride. They couldn't exactly argue against orders at the time, so the next day found them on the first train going to East City. Hughes had to stay behind a bit longer for some clean up and organizing, but he'd be joining them soon.

He couldn't dedicate all of the train ride to thinking though. There was something he needed to discuss with his team first.

Hughes was burning the midnight oil. He didn't have to, he wouldn't be done sorting through all this by the time Mustang's team left no matter how late he worked. But the sooner he did get done, then the sooner he could catch a train and finally get to see his darling wife and baby girl. He could use a good dose of their wholesomeness after dealing with the mess this entire case had ended up being.

He looked up from the desk when he heard the door open, and smiled when he saw who it was. Armstrong had a way of adding a bit of lightheartedness to just about anything, which was something Hughes could appreciate. However, he didn't look especially lighthearted right now. Understandable, given recent events, but there was still something off about it. Armstrong wasn't displaying the tired, shoulder sagging sadness that some of the other soldiers had acquired after the last few days, it was something more tense. He was rigid, and not in a 'trained military posture' kind of way. He was also carrying a box, one typically used to store documents for delivery, with both hands. When he saw Hughes, Armstrong made a beeline for him.

"I am glad you are here, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes." Armstrong said, in a voice much quieter than Hughes had come to expect from him. Armstrong glanced around the room, noting the presence of a couple other officers who were working late. Did he not want to disturb them? That wasn't usually a thing Armstrong was overly concerned about... "Are you busy? I was hoping you could help me find the best place for these, and maybe chat a bit if you are up for a break. I feel it has been a while since we've talked."

'Looking for a private chat, are you?' Hughes mused. He switched his smile from 'welcoming' to 'self deprecating'. "Heh, a break does sound good about now. I'll help you get that stuff dropped off first, sorry about all the mess. Things are pretty hectic all over right now."

"Indeed, they are."

Hughes made a small show of looking at box's label, then got up and lead to one of the small storage rooms.

"So, what's on your mind Major?" Hughes asked once they were alone.

"Always quick on the uptake." Armstrong said, nodding in approval. His voice was still quiet, and he was still holding the box with both hands despite how he was easily strong enough to carry it in one. "I...well, I found something as I was fighting the serial killer. Something strange. I wasn't sure who else I could trust to tell about it."

"How strange are we talking?"

"It is the strangest thing I have seen in a while." Armstrong glanced down at the box, and then held it out toward Hughes."So please, try not to express your surprise noisily."

Now equal parts suspicious and curious, Hughes took the lid off the box. When he looked inside, his eyebrows nearly rose to his hairline.

Instead of documents, the box held a folded blanket, and in the center of that blanket lay a tiny, black haired girl. He looked at her closely, relief filling him when he saw that her chest rose and fell with even breaths. He let out a breath of his own, then looked up and gave Armstrong a wry smile.

"You're right, this is pretty surprising. Though, not as strange as you might think."

The following morning, Team Mustang wearily marched into their office. Everyone was still tired from the early morning rise, of course, but there was also general nervousness to the group which centered around what Hawkeye and Mustang had discussed with the team on the way back. Now that the lab 5 investigation was over, for now, it was time to make a formal introduction and apology to their newest allies.

"You all wait out here until we call you in." Mustang ordered as he strode into his private office. He immediately started looking the office over, fully expecting traps to be set up all over the place to further the prank war. He was not comforted when he didn't immediately find any.

Hawkeye went slower, which is why something caught her eyes as she passed the main cluster of desks. She raised an eyebrow at the slight glint she saw, but said nothing as she followed the Colonel.

"Colonel, you can look for Ed's pranks after we get matters resolved." Hawkeye chided gently. Mustang grumbled, but got up from examining the seat of his chair. He went over to the wall, and knocked on it in sequence.

Hawkeye watched carefully. She'd be lying if she wasn't worried that the borrowers had taken their days long absence as an opportunity to leave and find a place to live; one where they didn't have to worry about so many humans knowing about them. So, though she didn't outwardly show it, she was thrilled when there was a small flash and an opening appeared in the wall.

Pinako strolled out, with her hands behind her back. She looked up at the two humans, then called over her shoulder. "It's only Mustang and Hawkeye."

On cue, Ed, Al, and Winry sprang out of the darkness.

"You're back! How did it go? Is Hughes back too?" Al asked.

"Let me guess, you couldn't pry him away from Gracia and his baby yet?" Ed asked, raising an eyebrow at Mustang.

"He's actually not back yet, he got caught up in paperwork." Mustang made a show of shuddering at the thought.

"At least he can do paperwork without someone threatening to shoot him." Ed drawled.

Hawkeye rolled her eyes. Only back for a few minutes and they were already at it. "Winry, how are you feeling?"

The girl smiled up at her. "I'm still sore, but I'm feeling a lot better now. Granny's a really good doctor." she said proudly.

"Glad to hear it." Hawkeye's eyes took notice of how Winry's movements were stiffer, and how the brothers hovered around her. Ed had even given up bantering with the Colonel in order to pay attention to them. "I don't live on base anymore, but you should still let me know when you are feeling up to visiting. I can find reasons to stay late."

"Just tell them Colonel Bastard needed to be held at gunpoint again, no one will suspect a thing."

Mustang glared at Ed. "I go all the way to Central to follow up on your lead and this is the thanks I get?"

"It's only 'our' lead because spying for you is a part of our deal." Ed shot back.

"That's true, but I'd still like to know how it turned out." Al grumbled.

"Sorry, Al." Hawkeye's voice was soft, both with affection and the tiredness the case had brought on. "But we'd like to get something over with first before we go into that."

Al's gaze shifted to Wintry for one second before going back to her. "Let me guess, a more formal introduction with the team?"

Hawkeye nodded. "Yes. They've already agreed to all the same terms that we did, and will not be sharing your secret without express permission." Ed's grinned smugly at this declaration. "And they would also like to make a formal apology."

All the borrowers turned to Winry. She took a deep breath. "I'm okay with it, as long as you're all here, and it's quick. Just don't expect me to go visiting them."

The humans helped the borrowers onto the low table between the two couches. Hawkeye made sure her hands were especially steady after Winry had let out a his of pain as she slowly got onto Hawkeye's palm. Once they were all situated, Mustang called in the team.

Team Mustang shuffled into the room. Their eyes immediately zeroed in on the borrowers, and they sort of hunched in on themselves. Like they were all trying to make themselves smaller to match their impossibly small guests. Despite that, Winry still shifted to stand a bit more behind Al as they all filed in and stood at one end of the table.

Mustang and Hawkeye had sat down on opposite couches. Mustang waved his hand between the two groups. "So introductions; short version." He looked at his team. "If you can't remember all of their names after those two train rides I'm very disappointed in all of you. If you can't tell the difference between the brothers, remember Ed has long hair and is a brat and Al has short hair and is a good kid."

Said 'brat' shot him a look. "Oh, is that how we're doing this? Let me try then." He turned to his family. "Falman is the gray haired guy who could substitute for an encyclopedia volume. Havoc is the blonde philanderer, and Breda's the short-haired brunette that's smarter than he looks. Fuery is the nice one."

Falman and Breda seemed to be unsure if their descriptions were meant to be complimentary or not. Havoc was spluttering and Fuery was now smiling and wasn't hunching anymore.

"Edward!" "Brother!" Winry and Al hissed at the same time.

"It's fine." Fuery said quickly. "We're not gonna be mad at you guys over something like that, especially since the Colonel started it." Falman and Breda nodded in agreement. Mustang's indignant look was ignored.

"How often do you guys talk about us?" Havoc wondered.

"Not much, why?" Mustang asked, smirking a bit as Havoc tried to sort through the implications of that.

"Um, aren't we getting a little off topic here?" Falman asked. Breda nodded again.

"We are. We want to apologize for our rough treatment of you. We let our base curiosity get the better of us, and that shouldn't have happened. We know better now, and will do our best to be gentler and more respectful in the future. And we promise to keep you a secret."

"Uh, yeah, what he said." Havoc said, finally looking away from Mustang. "And, I'm especially sorry to you, Winry. I really didn't mean to hurt you, and I promise I'll never do anything like that again."

Winry stared at him for a moment, then nodded in acceptance.

"And, if you guys ever need anything and the Colonel, or Hawkeye, or Hughes aren't around, then you can come talk to us." Falman added. "I mean, you could come to us even if they are around, but I just figured you'd prefer them so..."

"The point is, we'll give you space if you want, but you don't have to worry about talking to or asking us for anything. We're happy to help." Fuery explained.

"Thank you boys. I'm sure we'll take you up on it eventually." Pinako said kindly.

"Yes, thank you. The apology is appreciated." Al said with the small bow. Winry joined him after a moment.

"Yeah, thanks, and we'll definitely take you up on that promise." 'At least I will.' Ed thought.

"Alright, that's out of the way. Now everybody get to work." Mustang got up and ushered them all out of the room and closed the door behind them.

"So, does that settle things?" Hawkeye asked.

"For now, yes." Pinako assured her. "We'll see how things progress from here."

"That's was a pretty good apology, more than I expected from a couple of them." Al admitted.

"It was." Ed nodded. "It almost makes me feel bad."

"Almost, but not quite?" Alphonse guessed.

"What are you two getting at?" Winry asked, narrowing her eyes at the two of them.

Before either could respond, there was a sudden cacophony of yells and swear words from behind the door.

"That. That's what we're getting at." Ed replied.

"Hm, I figured that was you." Hawkeye said mildly. "I'm rather disappointed that none of them noticed the tacks on the chairs. Though, I didn't hear Fuery, so maybe he did."

"Oh no, we didn't leave one on his chair. He was actually nice to us, so we didn't see the need." Al explained.

"Ed...Ed why? Why do you feel the need to tick them off so much?" Winry groaned.

"One, Al helped so don't pin this whole thing on me. Two, they deserved it for hurting you. Three, if they still keep their promises even when mad at me then we know they really mean them." Ed listed off.

"I know you dragged Al into it, don't try to fool me."

"Acutally, he only had to drag me a little. I also thought they deserved a bit of payback." Al said with a bright smile.

"Yeah, he's the one that thought of using a bit of glue to make sure the tacks wouldn't fall over when they pulled the chairs out." He held up and hand and Al high-fived him.

"Oh, I am never letting them live that down." Mustang said, smirking as he walked over to his own desk.

"I can appreciate wanting to test the limits of new comrades, though I'd suggest keeping the prank war between you and the Colonel. We don't want things to get out of hand." Despite her chiding tone, she was smiling lightly.

"Of course not. If they wanted a prank war they'd have to earn one."

"I think you're missing the point brother..."

*creeeee-ACK!* "OW!"

Everyone jumped and turned to see Mustang on the ground, the back legs of his chair partially broken off.

"Consider that official payback for the fly paper incident." Ed called over. Mustang glared at him from the floor.

"What the hell?!" the muffled cry came from the other side of the door.

"What now?" Winry asked wearily.

"Oh, we thought punishing all three of them equally wasn't right, since Falman didn't actively try to hurt us. So we used the excess glue we had to stick all of Havoc and Breda's writing utensils together." Al explained.

Hawkeye shook her head fondly, and got up to go explain the madness to the rest of the team. She felt this had gone well, honestly.

A.N.

I'm not dead!
Sorry it took so long to get another chapter out. The decisions about some plot things made me stutter on working on this chapter and then I got caught up writing some other stories. I'll do my best not to take nearly a year for the next chapter. Thanks for reading!