Stand by You

XIV

"Evie!" A voice yelled.

I turned, expecting to see Edward and Alphonse, but instead I was shocked to see Hughes. "Hughes?" I said. "What's up?"

"'What's up'?" He cried. "Haven't you heard the news? Your reassignment spread like wildfire! What happened?"

"Hughes, I don't pay attention to gossip," I sighed. "And besides, I wasn't worthy of the job in the first place, so why bother? Anyways, did you need something?"

"Well, I do need your help," Hughes said.

"Huh? With what?"

"Edward drew this transmutation circle and wants me to look into it. Got any ideas what it could mean?"

He handed me a piece of paper and I looked at it. It was a huge transmutation circle with smaller circles within and all were connected by lines similar to a spiderweb. I handed back to Hughes, shaking my head, "I don't have the slightest clue what this could mean."

"Well, I guess it's time to hit the books," he sighed.

*~*~*~*~*~

"The Liore insurgency?" Hughes asked.

"Yes, where that new religion 'Letoism' or whatever was suckering the people," a fellow soldier in the library explained as Hughes read newspaper clippings. Miss Sheska was at another desk and looked like she was dying, as she still had several more copies of criminal records she had to duplicate. "Sounds like it's finally under control," the soldier continued, sighing.

"Between Ishval and these insurgencies, the eastern is having a rough time of it, huh?" Hughes remarked.

"It's not just the eastern area," the soldier added. "There are uprisings and border skirmishes in the north and west too."

"The bodies are piling up all over, are they?" Hughes said.

"The government might just be overthrown before too long." Hughes suddenly sat up, putting down the article as he left. "Evie, lets go," he said.

"Colonel, where are you going?" The soldier asked.

"I'm running over to the archive room," Hughes explained as I followed him out the door.

*~*~*~*~*~

Hughes had a giant map of the country out, and I was fetching papers on events he had requested. He skimmed through these papers, circling locations on the map. "Liore...uprisings all over...the Philosopher's Stone...ingredients are humans...what we did in Ishval...hey, now, who was it that came up with this?" He muttered to himself. "I have to tell the Führer, quickly."

A shadow looked over us and we turned, seeing Lust once again. She was one of the my kidnappers from a few days ago. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes," she smiled. "And a pleasure we meet again, Clockwork. Or, perhaps I should say, 'farewell'."

She backed us up, unleashing her extendable yet sharp fingernails. Hughes eyed the tattoo she had. "Cool tattoo you got there," he said cooly.

"You've learned too much, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes," Lust said.

She pulled back, ready to kill us but Hughes quickly pulled out his knife he had and chucked it at her head, dodging last minute so she only stabbed his shoulder. I unsheathed my swords as threw it like a javelin as well, landing the killing blow on her stomach.

We needed to get out of here. I quickly folded up the map Hughes drew on as well as the paper Edward gave to him and tucked it within my jacket. Hughes clenched his teeth as he stumbled, clutching his shoulders. "Easy does it," I said, putting his good arm over my shoulders as I helped him out of the archive room.