Heart of a SIN - FMA Envy Fanfic [Edited]

30 - Zolf J. Kimblee

Arisa pov:

"Here are your tickets, dear," said the kind, old man sitting behind the ticket counter at the train station as he handed me two tickets.

"Thank you," I replied, regarding him with a chaste bow which he returned with a toothy grin.

As we were walking to the train we were to board, Leo stopped me by a tug on my shirt. Pointing to one of the stalls on the station, he chirped, "Leo want that!"

The woman at the stall was placing freshly steamed buns on her display racks and they looked delicious. With a nod in agreement to Leo, we stepped to the stall and I had her pack us four buns that we could eat on our way to East Amestris – it was closest city that was close to the Ishval settlements. We were to stock up on necessities there before we went to the Ishval settlements by foot.

We then boarded the train and took a seat in one of the relatively empty bogies. I let Leo take the window seat of the compartment we sat in and I placed my bag on the opposite seat. I glanced at Lt. Ashford – Col. Archer's subordinate who was following me – as he sat a few compartments away. I was tempted to smile in amuse but I didn't, and merely settled to look out of the window. It was a few moments later that the train departed.

After my meeting with Col. Archer last evening, I had returned home and contacted Col. Mustang by fusing my cell phone with one of the phone lines so that it wouldn't be tapped by anyone. Upon explaining the situation, I had requested him to arrange a place for Dr. Marco to stay. He was quick to take action and a soldier disguised as a civilian had come to pick up Dr. Marco in the middle of the night and take him to a safe house.

Post a few hours rest, I had packed clothes, food and water, and all my gadgets in the morning before leaving for the mission Col. Archer had given me. Finding Scar was most definitely important because he hadn't really taken my advice about not killing State Alchemists. He had to be stopped but Col. Archer's indifference to the lives of civilians that the military was actually supposed to be protecting had me irked. Well, I couldn't do anything about his attitude but I could deal with possible confrontation without violence.

Col. Archer was having Lt. Ashford follow me since I left his office yesterday – he was pretty good at being inconspicuous because no one around me including military personnel seemed to notice his stalking. It was because Col. Archer didn't trust me like Col. Mustang did, all the more so because I had run off without an explanation yesterday. It was suspicious enough that he hadn't pressed me for more details than I had given him so it wasn't too surprising that he was having his right hand man keep an eye on me.

I glanced again at the lieutenant a few minutes into our journey. He was not looking my way and I narrowed my eyes slightly.

"Leo, I'll be right back so stay here, alright?" I said, caressing his head once before I stood and walked past Lt Ashford to the bathroom.

When I was in the bathroom, I placed my hand on the wall and transmuted it to make a small hole and telescope to look through. Looking through it, I saw that Lt. Ashford had made his way to my compartment and was looking through my bag. Leo hissed at him, baring his teeth, but whimpered and cowered when he was shown a gun. The Lieutenant cursed under his breath, throwing my bag onto the seat with a rather angry look on his face.

"What are you looking for?" I mused, continuing to watch his next actions.

I felt apologetic to Leo when the lieutenant forced him to stand to check all his pockets rather roughly. I felt a spark of anger when he shoved Leo to the floor of the train and the latter whimpered. The other people in the train merely watched on, whispering amongst each other, but did nothing to stop the lieutenant. In fact, they seemed frightened by the lieutenant, perhaps thinking of him as a thug.