Life problems have been handled (Thank God) Now I can get back on this story :D

Oh and huge shout out to Clair Aragon who beta read this chapter. You're awesome!

I'm still a bit busy though I'll still try to keep updating more.

Disclaimer: FMA doesn't belong to me, only my OCs do.

"Sheesh, why did you have to drag me down her, Nat?" Ed groaned for the umpteenth time today.

I pulled Ed and Al out of where we were staying after finding out the horrible news about Nina. I thought the two needed to get their mind off of things. I needed to get my mind off of things myself. I was a complete train wreak due to what had happened last night. I was still shocked, but I had to get myself together and move on from it. I was happy I was able to think so much after I pulled an all-nighter last night. I guess, going through twenty-four hours without any sleep, actually helped get my head straighten.

"Because I'm getting the both of you back on your feet after what happened." I replied, sighing, then straightened my back as we walked the streets of East City. The clouds stained the gloomy area as water fell from the sky. Although, somehow, there was a hint of cold weather in the high humidity from the wind.

"I don't understand, I told you to stop bringing that up, Natalie." Ed snapped, using my actual name instead of the nickname he gave me. Now he was pissed.

"Hey! You're the one who asked why I dragged you here." I argued, pointing a finger at him.

"You could've said it in a better way!" Ed snapped at me, clearly infuriated and sleep deprived. He was screaming in his sleep last night from obviously one heck of a nightmare.

I looked down, depressed about the situation. I felt like having another breakdown like I did last night. I started to apologize, "Ed, I'm sorry…"

"Brother, she's upset about it, too." Al admitted, shrugging his shoulders as we walked down the hill past shops and homes.

"I know she is, but I don't need her bringing it up," Ed argued, "or you."

It was natural what Ed was doing: lashing his anger out on us because he probably thought it was the only way to get some of his pain out. I noticed that he had been…more suspicious of me. Must he blame me for what happened to Nina?

And now, I feel more depressed than ever. Why am I such an idiot? There went some of my confidence.

"Hey, I was just trying to explain to you what was going on." I argued, "You asked me."

Ed growled before screaming, "It was a rhetorical question, damn it!"

I blinked at his sudden rage, backing away a little. Sighing, I decided it was best for me to let it go.

But no, I had to say something else, "What is your problem? Why are taking your rage out on us?"

"You're the one who started it!" Ed raged.

Al put his hands up in defense, "Ok guys, no need to fight…"

"What? I'm sorry, but I actually care about you! Stop getting mad at us for this!" I asked, rolling my eyes, ignoring Al's comment. "That makes sense." I remarked sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

"Come on, guys, just let it go." Al tried to get us to calm down, but I could tell that Ed was beyond wanting to calm down.

"I can tell you don't trust me, Ed." I told him flat out, emotionless, "I can feel you are somewhat blaming me for what happened to Nina…"

"Just stop! You did enough, damn it. Just shut up!" Ed growled, fed up with my attitude.

I flinched at his anger. He…really did blame me, deep down. I felt another wave of depression hit me. I still felt like it was entirely fault.

Damn it, I am such an idiot! Why was I always the one doing something stupid? I was reckless, stupid, and downright acting like a bitch.

"I guess you got every right not to trust me after all that's happening." I turned away from the two, "I guess, you rather not have some emotional girl with you or someone who was responsible for what happened to Nina."

"Natalie…" Al began trying to convince me I was wrong.

"No, Al, it's true." I walked a bit away from him. "It's ok, Edward Elric would rather not have someone around like me, anyways. I get in the way…"

"Edward Elric?"

The man's voice was deep and filled with hate. I felt a lot of killing intent seeping in the area as I felt my breath caught in my throat, as if I was getting chocked, but in reality, I wasn't. I was frozen in fear, afraid to turn around, but as soon as I did the man was about five feet away from me. He had to be almost six feet tall. He had white hair and an x shape scar on his face. He stared straight at Ed.

"You're the Fullmetal Alchemist?" He asked in a low and menacing voice.

Ed crossed his arms across his chest, "Why do you wanna know?"

My eyes widened. I felt as if the force of the area doubled as the killing intent quadrupled. This man…something wasn't right with him. I couldn't put a finger on it, but he just screamed murder, and it scared me. In fact, it made me almost completely terrified, as if I was questioning if I was going to live after this.

"You must atone for you sins against God." The scarred man spoke ominously. "You must die."

My eyes widened in shock. Why did this guy want to kill Ed? It didn't make any sense. Why was he targeting Ed? As far as I know, Ed didn't know this guy. Why kill someone you don't know?

"Huh?" Ed looked confused as the man suddenly charged at him, flexing his hand at him.

Ed thankfully was able to dodge him at the last second. I was still frozen, unable to move when my body weighed in the balance of the man. He was intimidating me more than anyone had before.

We needed to run. We needed to run and get the hell away from this man as fast as we could.

"Ed, you need to run!" I hollered. I was contemplating if I should jump into help Ed or not. I knew Ed couldn't handle this guy on his own. He needed some help against this guy if this fight was unavoidable.

I could try to reason with the guy, but then again, I don't know if I could. Well, I definitely didn't want Ed killed or anyone murdered.

"Hey hold it!" I managed to get myself to say to the scarred man. He snapped his head over to me. "Why are you trying to kill Ed? And who are you exactly?"

"Natalie, stay out of this!" Ed hollered. He sounded really concern. What the heck? He's never concern after being mad at me. What was going on?

"As long as there are creators in the world, then they must be destroyers." The scarred man stated ominously, as if he had every right to kill Ed.

"You're not making any sense!" I shouted back at him.

"I don't expect a child like you to understand." The scar man narrowed his cold eyes at me.

Now I was getting frustrated. "Understand what?!"

"Understand the pain that my people had been caused by your own." The man replied, snarling at me.

"And killing us is going to solve that? You're a fool to think something like revenge is going to solve something like that!" I retorted.

But wait a minute; he said that his people had been in pain by Amestris' people. Does that means he's…

That had to be the reason. He had dark skin...however I couldn't see his eye color because he had glasses...so he could be Ishvalan, couldn't he?

"You misunderstand, you and the armor boy are none of my concern; my business is with the Fullmetal Alchemist! But if you or the armor boy gets in my way, I'll have no choice but to kill you both." The man responded.

"You seriously expect us to sit back while you try to kill my brother?" Al questioned harshly, standing beside me.

"Ed, you need to run! Edward!" I screamed at him, but he was still frozen. Was he afraid? If he was scared, then we were possibly screwed. "C'mon! Snap out of it!"

Shit, I might not have much of a choice here; I may have to fight.

Ed suddenly snapped out of his shocked expression and stared at me before deciding to clap his hands together, forming a wall in front of us.

"Are you crazy?!" I shouted, "That guy could probably kill us in a second if he could!"

"It'll give us some time to get out of here," Ed retorted.

Suddenly, the wall that Ed transmuted exploded as the scarred man stepped out again.

"I knew it wasn't going to hold for long!" I stated, backing away from the crazy scarred man. He could kill us in a instant if he wanted to and that's what he was going to do to Ed if someone didn't stop him.

Then again, I realized something; Ed, Al, and I couldn't outrun him even if we tried. He was still faster than us and stronger than us.

I guessed the only way of getting out of this was talking. Maybe I could get some answers or something.

Taking a deep breath, I spoke, "Why you wanna kill Ed?" I asked.

"Because state alchemists are nothing but evil. They propane God by using alchemy to create when creation is the providence of God." The scarred man answered.

"Alchemy's a sin to you?" I raised both my eyebrows at him as thoughts shot at me. He has to be Ishvalan, no doubt about it, but still, why use alchemy if he thought it was a sin?

I remember reading history books about the Ishvalan war. The war had been triggered when an Amestrian solider accidentally killed an innocent child. The war lasted thirteen years before the Fuhrer decided to exterminate Ishval and their people using the state alchemists. Judging by the scarred man's age, he had to been an adult when war had broken out and was obviously a survivor.

A survivor hellbent on revenge. I guessed his revenge had good reasons, but still, Ed was a good person and didn't deserve to get killed! He was my friend, too, even though he was ticking me off earlier.

"I think I understand now." I began, "The Amestrians have done something terrible to your people, but I don't think killing some state alchemist is going to solve your problems. Your problems won't get better because of it."

"I understand that, but surely, girl, you wouldn't want others to get hurt because of their mistakes." He raised his voice slightly at me, "I can tell you're not one of the state alchemists, but if you get in my way, you will have to answer for your crimes, too."

"What crimes are you talking about? For protecting people I care about?!" Now it was my turn to raise my voice at him, "Surely, you realize that not all alchemists are like that." What the heck am I saying? Why do I keep arguing with him? It's completely pointless to try to argue now, or was it?

"Natalie, it's pointless to try to talk him out of it," Ed sighed, shaking his head.

"I know that," I sighed with him.

"So, you were trying to spare time, were you, but I'm afraid it won't do you any good, Fullmetal Alchemist." The scarred man echoed through the alley and charged at him.

I panicked and grabbed Ed's arm as we both ran, Al following us quickly. I stopped running and let Ed run along ahead as I transmuted many walls before running again.

"Sheesh, I hope that holds him for at least two-"

A guest of powerful wind and the sound of rocks shattered. Ed and Al were able to not get hit by the force of the attack, but I wasn't so lucky. The force knocked me off my feet, sending me crashing into a building before falling to the ground, sitting style as I panted. My back was aching like hell now.

Ugh! This guy wasn't giving me many decisions but to fight.

I drew a transmutation circle before slamming my hand on it, transmuting a curvy sword.

"Natalie, you ok?" Al asked as I sighed.

"Fine, though my back is killing me from that crash." I explained, trying to straighten my back to keep it from hurting even more.

I just had the worst of luck, didn't I?

"I told you." The scarred man began, "If you get in my way of my mission, I'll kill you." He flexed his hand as he threw it to the ground, shattering the ground and nearly causing me to fall to the ground.

Shit, I can move back! I gotta…

My thoughts went out as I heard Ed screaming for me to move, I moved to the right to find that the scarred man was originally aiming for my head. I hyperventilated, trying to calm down. I could've died there, but I didn't.

"Get away from her! It's me you want!"

I heard the sound of alchemy being used as I spotted Ed transmuting a sword, charging at the scarred man. He grabbed Ed's arm as he tried to destroy it; it failed, sending Ed right into me, the two of us colliding to the ground hard.

Now, it went from just my back killing me to almost everything killing me.

At least there's not blood. I really shouldn't jinx it, though.

"My attacks didn't do the damage I wanted." The scarred man stated, noticing Ed's automail right arm from Ed's torn jacket sleeve. "An automail arm that explains it, then."

I manage to stand to my feet, ignoring the pain everywhere. I felt blood trickling down my face.

Oh God, not now! Please not now of all times I notice blood on me. I was also pretty sure I had a concussion by now for how many times I have hurt my head.

Some backup would be nice, because how much more damage could I take?

Ed clasped his hands together to form his normal automail blade as I got ready to fight, despite my pain and exhaustion.

"We should attack all at once." I muttered to Ed, my voice as low as it could go. "There's no way we can beat him on our own."

"I hate to admit it, but you're right, Nat." Ed nodded in agreement.

I noticed Al was behind the scar man as well and was preparing to fight, too. We all charged at once at him, running at out top speed, but the man dodged us easily.

"You three are too slow." The man spoke as his arm lifted towards Al's armor.

Oh no…

I quickly got in front of Al, putting my sword to block it out. Then, I felt a world of pain as I felt myself fall, hitting the ground hard as my vision went black, hearing Ed and Al both shouting my name, and then I lost my consciousness completely.

XXXX

I couldn't open my eyes as I first awoke, waking up to a painful headache, but I could hear voices…

"You said she was holding her sword to protect herself from getting to full hit of the attack?"

"Yes, sir. She's lucky that sword blocked most of it, but the sword shattered and nearly stabbed her in the shoulder. If she wasn't sent flying, that part of the sword that broke would've killed her instantly."

I recognized one of the voices; it was Ed. The other, from what I had heard and what the guy usually talks like was a doctor.

I forced myself to open my eyes, but quickly shut them again because of the lights in the celling that blinded me. I groaned, trying to open my eyes again as they slowly adjusted to the light.

I was in a white wall hospital room lying in a bed with some bandages around my arms, legs, around my ribs and around my head. Ed and the doctor were in the room.

The pain in my head doubled, though everywhere else I felt like I was drugged to stop the pain from getting worse. Though it seemed that whatever medicine was put into my body was wearing off.

How long have I been out for?

Mentally swearing at the stupidity I had earlier, I slowly rose to sit upwards. I'd also noticed that because of the bandage on my head, my long, straight, brown hair that came down to almost my waist was no longer in a ponytail. Instead, my hair was down to my waist.

"H-Hi..." I greeted before coughing a little.

"Natalie, how are you feeling?" Ed asked me, narrowing his eyes at me. I couldn't imagine how much I scared everyone. The last blow I took could've killed me.

"The medicine is wearing off, I can tell. So…everything is hurting pretty much, mostly my head and my ribs." I replied, looking at my bandaged right arm. I sighed in relief that it hadn't gotten destroyed. The sword was probably the cause of that. Then again, that crazy serial killer did touch the sword with his alchemy, destroying the sword to pieces, hence why my hand up to halfway through my arm was bandaged.

I couldn't use alchemy at this point now til the wound was healed. Which meant I was practically useless now.

I noticed that Ed's right arm automail was completely gone. I gasped a little, "Oh my God…"

"It's ok, Natalie." Ed reassured me, noting the look of concern and sadness on my face, "At least...I'm alive."

That dangerous encounter was just as hard on him as it was on me. I felt bad for him and myself.

"Yeah…" I narrowed my eyes sadly, "At least you're not me."

Ed frowned at that. He looked like he blamed himself for what happened to me, "We were worried about you." Ed replied, "That was a dumb move."

"I'm sorry for worrying about you all." I apologize, bowing slightly. I could tell I gave them all heart attacks, especially Ed. He looked so down, though he looked a little better than last night after we got back from the Nina incident.

I suddenly noticed Al wasn't with them.

"Where's Al?" I asked, looking around.

"Well…after you lost consciousness, he got part of his armor shattered. We didn't bring him in here because of it."

I gasped; shocked that Al was still hurt as I was trying to help him, "Oh God…"

Ed sighed, shaking his head, "Calm down, Natalie, he's going to be alright."

My face brightened a little at that, "Thank goodness." It's a good thing he told me, because if Al would've died, if either of them would've died back there, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself.

"We're going back to my and Al's home Resembol soon." Ed explained. "I need to get my arm fixed." He showed me his right automail arm, which was completely destroyed, "Hey, remember what I said, I'm alive at least. Stop worrying, you need to get yourself recovered so you can come with us. That's if you want."

I shrugged, "Not like I'm going to have much to do with all of this much damage done to myself."

Out of all the life spam that I could've remembered, I've never been to Resembol in my life. I felt…excited that I could go there.

"You should go, Edward." I told him, using his actual name. Ed needed rest to from everything that has happened, "You need to rest, you weren't doing much of that last night."

Ed frowned and sighed, "I'm-I'm sorry that I blew off on you earlier; you were just, trying to help, and I was being a complete jerk towards you, and you were just thinking about me. I wanted to tell you that I don't blame you about Nina, not at all."

I smiled, feeling glad that he never blamed me for anything, "Apology accepted."

I noticed that Armstrong was crying as he walked in, Hughes behind him, "Oh Edward Elric, that was such an emotional apology, let me embrace you!" He gave Ed a bone crushing hug.

Ed screamed, "Q-Quit it, Major!"

Hughes greeted me with a salute which I gave back at him, smiling.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Ed tried to escape Armstrong's grip.

Armstrong put him down and sparkled. I swear, I still questioned that. He flexed his muscles and pointed them at the ceiling, "We wanted to see how Miss Natalie was doing."

"Yeah, you gave us quite the scare. Ed told us how it happened and we even saw your injuries. It didn't look like an easy fight." Hughes pushed up his glasses.

"It wasn't." Ed and I both sweatdropped, looking down at the ground.

"In the meantime, Ed, did you tell her about who it was that killed Nina and Tucker? I understand if you haven't, but she does have the right to know." Hughes asked.

"It was Scar." Ed replied, turning back to me, "He killed Tucker and Nina."

My eyes widened at that. Didn't Scar only kill State Alchemists and anyone who got in their way of him killing any? Why kill Nina then? I understood Tucker, but why Nina, it didn't make any sense unless…

He killed her out of mercy. That had to be it!

"I'm sorry." Ed muttered, "But there's nothing we could've done to save her."

I nodded, looking down, a little sad before looking up at him saying, "Get some rest, shorty." I smirked, knowing I needed a laugh. Well, a laugh that wouldn't kill me.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL HE COULDN'T BE SEEN WITH A MAGINFYING GLASS, YOU JERK!" Ed roared, almost ready to kill me, "YOU ARE SO DEAD WHEN YOU GET OF THIS HOSPITAL, NATALIE!"

I laughed with the Major and Hughes, almost wincing in pain as I did, "Why does it have to hurt to laugh?" I groaned, coughing.

After Ed left, the doctor came back into the room to talk to me. Apparently, if my arm was hurt any more than it was, it would've had to be cut off. I also had two broken ribs and a lot of scratches and bruises all over my body. I also manage to get lucky with a non-serious concussion. The doctor said I could leave in a couple of days if I recovered fast enough.

Hughes had walked back into my room. Apparently, Armstrong had left already.

"Hey Natalie, do you wanna see pictures of Elica? She's the cutest little girl ever!" Hughes laughed as he pulled out some pictures of Elicia out of his pocket.

I laughed a little, calmly this time so I didn't cough my guts out, "Good grief, Hughes."

This was going to be a long couple of days.