All it took was a few moments of pure terror.

Terror at being cornered by something...inhuman.

Terror at the possibility that he would never go home again. Fear that he'd leave behind his lovely young wife and their four year old little girl.

He was on his knees, a look of utter hopelessness and despair on his face as he stared down the barrel of a gun in an effort to ignore the maniacal grin of the monster now wearing his wife's form.

He wasn't much of a praying man. Hell he wasn't much for religion at all. Not after the things that he'd done and seen while in Ishval. He'd killed too many innocent people and ruined too many other's lives to care anything for God.

But there, in that exact moment. He couldn't help but pray that God was merciful and would make his death a quick one. Even if he knew deep down that he didn't deserve it any.

He didn't remember closing his eyes. All he could recall, even in the vaguest sense was that he was getting dizzy from blood loss. His head was spinning. Likely because of the wound to his side.

It was a flesh wound, sure. But even flesh wounds could bleed like a bitch.

He heard the safety being taken off and knew that this was it. He was going to die any moment now, like a dog, on his knees, shaking in fear. He wasn't going to lie.

It sucked.

However just as the creature started to pull the trigger- they both heard the curious drawl of a feminine voice and his eyes snapped open, and his head swiveled in the direction of the sound in alarm. After all, it was one thing for him to die like a dog- it was quite another entirely for someone else to get dragged into this mess.

The creature let out an annoyed sounding animalistic growl and focused it's inhuman eyes on the intruder.

Standing there just a few feet from the two of them was a girl. She looked young. Like fourteen or fifteen years old kind of young. She was tall for her age. Her height nearly reaching six foot easily. And that was without the added height that a girl tended to get from heels.

She had long strawberry colored hair that was up off of her nape in a twist, leaving a few stray strands to flirt with her cheeks. Her eyes though- dear god, he thought that the creature was fucking scary- he was pretty sure that the look of utter malice in the kid's glittering garnet red eyes could scare the piss out of anyone.

Maes was fairly certain that if he hadn't maybe already wet himself, that he would probably do so again easily.

"You're interrupting something here kid." Envy said in a warning tone.

"I can see that. I'm just wondering what I should do now..." The girl said in an perplexed tone.

"You could always going scampering back home to your mother-"

"Or- and I like this plan much better than yours-" She said flippantly. "I can kick your ass- No, no, no. Don't say anything. I already know what your thinking. It's probably along the lines of; My god, my ass hurts." She smiled then. And not a nice smile, but the kind of blood chilling smile that Maes had only ever seen on the most wicked of serial killer's.

How the hell does a pretty little gal like her get a damned smile like that? He wondered as the creature opened his mouth to say something- probably scathing or at the very least in outrage of her assumption- however he never got far enough.

Maes didn't even know what the hell happened. One second the kid was rambling in a half joking manner about kicking the creature's ass and the next, she was gone. Literally!

D-Did she just disappear into thin air? He wondered idly before he saw a blur of movement out of the corner of his eye and the creature went flying through the air as the girl suddenly reappeared. What the?! He thought in a panic as he eyed her warily.

Her eyes didn't leave the creature for a moment or so longer before she asked in a low tone, "Hey mister, are you okay?"

It was on the tip of his tongue to snap at her that, hell no, he wasn't okay. But he managed to stop himself at the last moment as she dug something out of her back pant's pocket and then held it out to him. He blinked at it, his mind not really seeming to register that she was holding out a kerchief for him to use. Maybe to staunch the flow of blood on his side.

When he finally did realize what she was trying to do, he wasn't sure if he was grateful or not. After all, she had just knocked the hell out of the creature and had a look on her pretty face akin to that of an ax murderer.

It wasn't exactly a look that inspired gratitude, much less any sort of warm and fuzzy feelings.

Still, he took it from her after a heartbeat or so and pressed it against his injured side, flinching slightly at the way the wound throbbed and ached and burned underneath the clothe.

"Think you can stand up?" She asked curiously. He frowned at her for a moment, wondering why she was asking him that when she suddenly knelt down in front of him with her back to him and said, "If you can't then climb on and I'll carry you."

"What?" He asked in a disbelieving tone. Not quite sure if he had heard her right.

"I said, if you can't stand then climb on. I'll carry you."

Feeling himself bristle at being told that she'd carry him- a guy a little more than ten years her senior, who weighed significantly heavier than he looked on her back- piggy back style. Would more than likely have two very different outcomes.

One is the creature would catch them and kill them both. And the other was that she would throw her back out and he'd probably have to carry her.

Neither option appealed to him any.

But at the same time, dying wasn't all that appealing to him either. So after several moments of careful consideration, he sighed and then muttered a few choice oaths as he moved to climb onto her back and upon settling himself there, he felt her slip her small hands underneath his knees and shift him a little bit before she stood up.

"Alright, I'm going to take you to the local hospital."

He was still sort of trying to wrap his mind around the fact that she had actually managed to pick him up as she spoke, so he partially missed what she had said. It didn't stop him from saying, "Fine. What about that-"

"If he's smart- he ran."

"O-Oh," He stammered out in shock before then saying. "Okay. But if you eat me- I will haunt you for it later."

She made a soft sound before replying, "Duly noted. Now let's get you some help before the riff-raff doubles back on us." She hadn't said much after that. Though he would admit to being rather out of it by then anyways. So it was probably a good thing that she hadn't really spoken much after that.

To be perfectly honest- not long after they had started moving- he had more or less lost the fight to stay conscious. Everything from his injury to the adrenaline pulsing through his veins to the overwhelming bit of information about the things that he had found- all sort of knocked him out.

He woke up around midnight or so to find himself, much to his astonishment, in an actual hospital bed. His side had been sterilized, stitched and bandaged and he also had a IV with a blood bag hooked up to his arm.

But more than that, was the fact that his wife and daughter were present in the room along. Both were asleep. While his mysterious savior sat across from the hospital bed that he lay in, with his daughter curled up in her lap.

Alarmed by the fact that she was holding his little girl he started to sit upright, but had to stop when his side gave a painful twinge of protest. He hissed and fixed angry gold eyes on the girl as she blinked at him and then said in a hushed tone, "You shouldn't move so fast. You'll tear you're stitches if you do."

He might have made some smartassed remark, however the fact that she slowly got to her feet and moved over to his side and carefully deposited his little girl on the side of the bed where he wasn't injured, didn't go totally unnoticed to him.

"I'm sorry for going through you're wallet once I got you here." She said the words softly as she grasped his wrist lightly and placed his arm around his little girl. "But I needed the information to contact you're family and let you're emergency contact know your current situation. He..uh...said that he'd be on his way here as soon as possible. He must be a good friend. He sounded really worried about you."

"Name." It wasn't a question. It was a command.

"Horse something or other. I think?" She said with a small frown.

He rolled his eyes despite how ridiculous Roy's newest nickname was. Horse. He'd be telling the flame alchemist that the second that he walked through his door. It would likely piss the man off to no end. But as relieved as he was to know that she had managed to somehow contact Roy and tell him about what had happened, it wasn't his name that he wanted.

It was hers.

He wanted the name of the person/thing that had saved him from dying. Even if it was just so that he could attempt to dig something up on her later. After all, if the homunculi had left behind a damned trail...then it wasn't totally beyond reason that the girl may have been noticed by the military too.

Even if it was something small and seemingly insignificant. He'd find it.

"You're name," He said again, this time he tried to be specific. She blinked those oddly colored garnet red eyes of hers and made an O with her mouth before then thinning her lips and seemed to think. "No fake names or alias's kid." He growled out, his patience with her wearing thin.

"O-Oh...um...okay... M-My name-" He listened intently, his attention riveted on her when all of a sudden the door to his hospital room burst open and Roy came barging in.

"Hughes!"

"No! Dammit Roy!" He growled in irritation as the kid quickly said.

"Oh thank god- saved by the- you know what you guys need to talk, I'll go home now. Bye!" And beat a hasty retreat before he could so much as say; don't let her escape.