The Price of Life [Fullmetal Alchemist]

Chapter One

Battle On The Train- Enter: Sonia!

"Write sometime!"

"I hope you come back alive."

"Don't get into too much trouble!"

Sonia smiled at all of her friends from the train window.

"I'll come back soon enough," she replied, and they all nodded their heads. The train let out a puff of smoke and a long whistle. The three smiled sadly and waved. Sonia waved back as the vehicle chugged away.

"I'll be back, Augustine. I'll be back, my hometown."

"Man, what am I going to do?" the Colonel whined. "I have a date later. If I get off work late because the General decided to take a vacation, I'll blame all of it on him." Each one of his subordinates rolled his eyes. Breda muttered something, but Mustang didn't hear it, nor care.

"Well the General will just have to sacrifice himself so we can wrap this up quickly."

"Seriously, Colonel?" Fuery scolded. "Here's the passenger list." Roy took the list from him and skimmed through it.

"So he really is on the train with his family, eh?" Havoc butted in.

"Jeez. He knows things in the east are unstable, and he still chooses a few days off here?" The raven haired alchemist looked over the names once more and grinned once he saw two names.

"Wait... I think we can go home earlier than planned today!"

"What do you mean by that, Colonel?"

A smug look cast over his face. "Both Fullmetal and See-All Alchemist are onboard."

Sure enough, Colonel Mustang was right. There, sleeping on the train, was Edward Elric. In the next car over, was Sonia Moran, trying to calm down the hostages. She had already fought the shooters in the car. Being a State Alchemist, she handled them easily, and honestly she thought it was fun, the adrenaline kicking in. Still, she had other things to do.

'There had to be more thugs than this in other cars,' she thought. 'It won't hurt to check.' After one last reassurance that the passengers in there were safe, she carefully walked out to the small passageway into another car.

Before Sonia could open the door, a criminal busted it open. His eyes landed on her immediately, and he started shooting rapidly. She let out a yelp of surprise and ran up the ladder to the top of the train.

Down in the car below her lay a sleeping Ed. There was an armed man right in his face, yet he did nothing but snore.

"How can this brat sleep through this?" he asked, poking him in the cheek with his gun.

"Wake up, you little runt!" At the words 'little' and 'runt',the blonde alchemist immediately woke. He clasped his hands together on the gun and transmuted it into a harmless trumpet.

"What the hell?" The hijacker had no time to think before Ed kicked him square in the face. He had knocked him out, but there were more gunmen than just him.

"We were told to kill anyone who didn't comply. I don't want to shoot a kid like you, but..."

"Let's just calm down," Al said and took the gun from the man's hand. Ed didn't listen to his brother and kneed the assailant in the face.

"Don't call me a runt! Or a dwarf! Or a short person! I'm not as short as you think!" Alphonse had to hold back his brother before he mauled the man who called him short.

"Brother, stop." Ed muttered some curses.

"Fine, but who are these guys anyways?"

"Besides us, there's two in the engine room, four in the first class car with the General, and four in the coach keeping guard in different spots.