Chapter 101: Creta's Secret Service

Roy smirked widely as he saw Edward on the couch. The blond alchemist was obviously exhausted and had a beautiful red mark on his cheek. Roy who had gotten in fight with his sometimes really short-tempered cousin for years recognised this red spot that had the same shape as Jade's palm chuckled as he sat down next to Riza. "I take it that your plan to show Jade that you are extremely strong too was not such a success, huh?" the Flame Alchemist smirked. "We warned you that this would happen."

"No one told me that she trained martial arts since she was five, so I was hardly properly prepared! And she used alchemy. I don't know how she did it but there was suddenly more wind when before and while it didn't influence her at all, it distracted me!" Edward said.

"Fullmetal, she didn't even have her gloves," Phil sighed while his voice indicated that they had had this discussion for more than two hours which was very likely, considering that Edward and Jade were both very stubborn and proud people who would never give in. "And regarding that Jade would rather marry Envy than breaking the taboo, she has no possibility to use an air attack – or any other alchemistic attack. She is good, no, she's awesome but she needs an array. And furthermore: look outside, will you? There is a thunderstorm, right?"

"I am sure that Breeze Soul, also known as one of the most skilled air alchemists that ever were, can create something like a thunderstorm if she takes it too far!" Edward claimed.

Serena who had said nothing so far got up and slammed her palms on the table in front of her. "Oh, hell!" she yelled. "Will you please shut the hell up, Elric? You annoy me with your childish behaviour! Get your act together and act like a state alchemist is supposed to act! I get a migraine with your constant whining! You're a man for Truth's sake!"

Phil, Roy, Riza and Maes were the only ones who stayed calm as the Mermaid Alchemist started to yell. It was rare for Serena to get that angry but sometimes she couldn't help but getting mad enough to yell.

Nerissa appeared in the doorway with a wide smile. She had been carried downstairs by her father who didn't trust her to go down the stairs with a broken leg and painkillers in her system. "Ah, I thought I heard your lovely voice, princess," she said casually before she looked at her father. "I would like to sit on the couch, so could you please…"

Serena turned around and glared at Edward. "I would say that you have to get up to make place for Nerissa but since you aren't the tallest out here, well, it's not necessary," she said smugly.

"Serena, please," her older sister said calmly as she held out her hand. "Since you talked father into giving my shoulder some stitches, I believe you owe me something, princess."

"Smooth as always, even when you blackmail me," Serena chuckled, her shyness gone because she was speaking with her oldest sister and while she did this, the others morphed into the background, so she could ignore them and speak without any problems. "Well, what you do you want? And before you can answer: you won't get any of my manuscripts, Nessa. If I would hand them over to you, you would become a little bit too strong for my liking."

"No, I was thinking about you play a little bit this evening. I know that you are gifted…"

Serena's eyes started to gleam dangerously once more and her palms hit the table again. "Despite popular belief, Nessa, I am not interested in being the centre of the universe, got it?" she hissed before she rushed out of the room, slamming the front door shut behind her.

Nerissa looked at her father. "Like it was to be expected," she muttered with a deep sigh.

"I am going to search her," Nick said before anyone else could come to a decision. "I believe I can understand her better than anyone else."

Nerissa opened her mouth to protest but then she looked at her broken leg and sighed deeply. "Try to avoid making her too angry," she said. "I admit, I provoked her a little bit but she … she is frozen."

Maes nodded in agreement. "I agree with you," he said. "You noticed the way she doesn't really look at us."

Olivier sighed deeply before she looked at Nick. "I am the last one who would keep you from being a true man, Nick, but I hope you noticed that there is a thunderstorm out there," she warned.

He sighed deeply. "I am not dumb, Aunty, but I feel like she doesn't know it," he said. "And I … I can understand her to a certain extend. I believe I know how she feels, so I am getting her back."

Riza sighed deeply before she put on her coat again. "I am searching for her too," she said. "I owe her a favour and I would hate it if I would never get even with her."

Jade's hand connected with the table as she got up. "Give me a second to get my coat," she said while she headed towards the door. "She isn't an active state alchemist but she's still a comrade."

"You are hurt, sister," Phil said as he also stood up and grabbed his jacket from the chair. "But, to hell with it, I am in too. Let's get Serena before she can catch a cold."

"Nerissa, you stay here," Catherina ordered while she closed the buttons of her coat. "You are injured and since you can't afford your injury to worsen, you will have to sit this round out. Miss Wei, Mr Yao – I ask you to stay here with her, Mrs Hughes and the children. The rest is in for the squads to search her."

"Nick, you are the only exception because you were the first to say that he would go into the storm," Riza said. "Oh – and kids, before you can wonder why Jun Li and Lei will stay with you … it's because we want someone to stay back who can take care of you should you try to mess around in our business again – that goes especially for you, Laila."

The eight red-haired men who had been watching the house for hours by now smirked as first the blond-haired woman hurried out of the house before some minutes later many others followed.

"It looks like the chancellor himself goes after Miss Blue," the leader said. "Well, they will come back sooner or later. In this weather, no one will stay out for a long time, right?"

"Well, we are under orders to erase the whole family of the chancellor, right? Well, just the son went with the adults but the daughters are all in the house."

"I heard that the oldest girl is training under a Xingese master of martial arts…"

"And her sister is supposed to be already a high-skilled healing alchemist…"

"We are eight men and they are two little girls. I believe that this shouldn't be much of a problem."

Jun Li raised her head and her eyes narrowed. "There are people coming that I don't know," she said while her hand moved to the kunai which was hidden under her skirt. "Lei, do you feel this too?"

"They are heading straight for the door," her fiancé stated as he got up. "Cai, do you agree with me when I say that these people have … um … murderous intentions?"

The young prince nodded while he grabbed the kunai Jun Li held out to him. "Eight people who are heading straight for the door – and that makes no sense," he said. "Or maybe they don't know that we already know that they are there. No matter what, it is an insult in my eyes."

"I agree," Nerissa said from the couch while she took more knives from her pockets than anyone would have suspected on her body. "But since they have no clue that we are here, well, it has been a while since I fought in a house but I bet that this belongs to the things you never forget, huh?"

The killer squad entered the house by kicking down the door and almost the moment then the first one entered the entrance hall, someone landed on his shoulders, unceremoniously stabbing a kunai into his shoulder before jumping away and taking out two more kunai from the pockets on the shoulders. The attacker was a woman, around thirty year old, very pretty and obviously of Xingese descendant. She wore a red jacket and black pants and looked very scary. "Cretan Secret Service…" she muttered.

"You said something, darling?" a man asked while he equally calmly knocked out another redhead.

"I just came to the conclusion that these guys for the Cretan Secret Service, honey," she smiled.

"Alone for this conclusion you need to die," the leader said. "Another question: who are you working for? I never saw uniforms like this…"

"I work for the Xingese Secret Service," the woman replied, spinning around and kicking another opponent hard against the side of his head, knocking him out.

"I didn't even know that Xing has a secret service," the leader said.

"There you see how good we are," she replied before she threw another kunai behind her, pinning a fourth man against the wall.

"And I am her boss," the Xingese man said while he twirled around until his back was pressed against hers. "So I don't believe that you really want to mess with us."

"It doesn't speak for the Amestrian secret service that the chancellor hires two foreign agents for the protection of his children," the leader said, "or do you have personal reasons to be here?"

For a second, the male agent looked at his partner and as she nodded, he smirked. "In fact, yes," he said. "Our son is a close friend of the chancellor's oldest daughter, so we always hang out around them and keep an eye on the children. Oh, and we are sorry to get in the way of your plans."

The truth was that Xing had no official secret service like Creta or Drachma (if Amestris had one was still a big question) but Jun Li decided that she would take no risks. She was under orders to keep the children save and she would rather die than fail the ones who trusted her.

"Why did I end up here with you, Mustang?" Edward groaned in pain as he tried to move his leg.

"A state alchemist called Edward Elric decided to take the shortcut and dragged another state alchemist called Jade Mustang along. Everything seemed fine until Elric tripped and took Jade Mustang, Phil Mustang, Claudio of Aerugo, Bea Rodriguez and Winry Rockbell with him," Winry hissed. She was also part of the pile of bodies and found her arm between Bea's chest and Jade's leg.

"I believe my shoulder got relocated," Bea stated. "Um, Phil, if you would please get up from my legs I could release Winry and we could get free before someone thinks something strange about us."

"Um, Breeze Heart?" Edward bit his lower lip as he attempted to look worried. "Your sister doesn't move and she didn't complain so far. Is she … um … dead?"

Jade had been the unlucky one. She was under everyone, nearly smashed and it was safe to assume that the ribs she had broken during the Let's-rescue-Catherina-mission to the West were broken again.

"And she is too quiet," Claudio sighed. "Hey, Beatrice, could you raise your left leg? I could check her pulse if I had a hand free because I am worried."

Finally, they got free but Jade stayed silent, unmoving. Claudio's hand trembled as he touched her neck, searching for her pulse – and finding it. "She's still with us," he said calmly as he lifted her up, "but I would prefer to have her somewhere warm and cosy. I don't want her to get ill."

"Am I the only one who sees a certain pattern?" Phil asked with a sigh. "Whenever Jade goes on a mission with Mr Elric over here, she comes home with broken bones."

Jun Li's face was a perfect mask of horror and she held her kunai with a grim expression on her face and she looked like she was about to freak out any second. Lei had one of his twin swords in his hands and looked equally in the doorway, one hand fisted in Owen's shirt while Laila had one arm around Elicia's shoulders while their younger siblings clung on Cai's body. Nerissa leaned against the doorframe that was supposed to give her stability as she slowly took out her favourite knife that stuck in the sheath hidden in her hair.

"Very well," the sole female member of the killer squad said as she handed over Lars to her leader. "I see that you can think quick enough to avoid any injuries on the little boy's behalf…"

"…you … you have no idea…" Elicia whispered while she stared at the woman. "If his mother comes back in less than ten minutes, there will be blood … your blood."

Victoria and Laila exchanged a gaze and Laila stared at the leader with hatred in her eyes before she slowly stepped close behind, letting go of Owen for a moment. The sisters moved in perfect synchronisation as they crossed the room, giving Nerissa the chance to strike.

It was common knowledge that Nerissa was very capable of hitting any target with her sharp weapons. But it was also common knowledge that she never killed anyone – no matter how much she had lost her mind, she had always stepped back before she had killed.

The knife left her hand with a little bit more force than usual and flew faster than before. It was her favourite one, the one with the blue gem on the grip.

Jun Li knew what would happen even before the knife could hit the target and Lei who knew it too looked away. He didn't want to see what would happen. Nerissa realised it too but once she had thrown the knife, there was no way to get it back. Her hands came up to cover her face and she turned away, not wanting to see how the knife stabbed the man's chest, just under his heart.

"Oh dear … Nerissa…" Victoria whispered before she hurried forward to snatch Lars away from the dead man.

The rest of the fight passed in a blur for everyone. The most impressing moment was when Gracia who had stayed in the kitchen where she hadn't heard anything used her pan to knock out a man who was dumb enough to attack her daughter.

"…hey, Serena," Nick said before he gracefully landed next to his aunt who sat underneath a tree and was probably meditating in the middle of a thunderstorm. "I figured out that I would find you here."

It didn't even take his twin's geniality to figure this out because it was common knowledge that Serena was a child of nature and that she had always searched the silence of a forest when she felt unhappy. Yes, sometimes it was smart to listen to Roy's stories about the good old times.

"Nick," she said calmly while she opened her eyes to look at him. "I see that you are a lot like me," she went on while she connected her fingertips. "I believe that you were the one to figure out the seal?"

He nodded. "It was difficult to see but I wondered how you did it and it seemed the most logical thing to do," he said, waiting for her harsh remark.

"You are at least as smart as your twin – just in another way."

"Thanks, I guess."

She looked at him while her eyes narrowed. "You will report to my house once I return to Central," she said in a voice that made it obvious that this hadn't been a suggestion but an order.

"Why?" he asked while he hoped that he hadn't gone too far with that question.

"Because you need a decent teacher, boy," she said. "I refuse to let my twin's son being weak."

He got up and held out his hand. "C'mon, Serena," he said friendly. "I can't have you catch a cold."

Riza was incredibly pale as she entered the entrance hall and saw eight Cretan agents who were tied up and one dead man on the floor. "Jun Li, what the hell happened?" she asked, incredibly worried.

The Xingese woman looked down at her feet. "We got in a hostage situation," she said, with every fibre of her being a professional warrior. "The dead one somehow got his hands on Lars and Nerissa, well, she didn't take it kindly. I believe she originally aimed for the shoulder but her aim was a little bit off."

Roy nodded slowly before he stared at the silver knives which were shattered all over the floor.

Lei bit his lip. "We allowed her to leave because she looked like she was going to break down but Jun Li took away all of her knives before she allowed Miss Nerissa to leave," he said. "And even I was very surprised to see that the young lady carries so many knives in a regular outfit."

Riza bit her lip. "She is upstairs, right?" she asked while she walked over to the stairs. "Roy, do me a favour and check on the children if they are alright. I am going to look after her."

She hurried up the stairs and inhaled deeply as she got closer to the bathrooms of the house.

Jade stirred as she woke up and sighed deeply as she looked into the eyes of her boyfriend. "How long was I out this time?" she asked while she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Half an hour," he said while he kissed her forehead. "Say, Jade, are your ribs broken again?"

She shook her head. "No – and that surprises me a little bit," she said. "I feel just like an elephant decided to take a nap on my back."

He chuckled nervously, remembering that he had been a part of the 'elephant'. "Well, um, Jade, I know this is hardly the right way to do this, but, yeah, you know, I love you, right? I mean, I really, really love you and, um, I was wondering if you, well, would like to marry me someday soon…" His blush was even darker than Serena's. "Hell, I have to sound absolutely crazy right now, but-"

She pressed her fingers on his lips. "Yes, Claudio," she said calmly. "I say yes."

Nerissa cursed while water ran over her body and while she smashed her head against the wall behind her. Tears were all over her face but since she had the shower running, no one would be able to tell the difference between her tears and the water from the shower.

Suddenly, the water was turned off and Riza pulled back the curtain and handed her a towel. "I heard what happened," she said softly while she took another towel and wiped away the tears and the ruined makeup from her cousin's face. "I know that you feel terrible right now but … please … keep it together, will you? Vicky and Laila are worried and Cai said that it wasn't your fault…"

"It was my fault!" Nerissa hissed, connecting her head with the wall once more. "My aim was off!"

"You used your injured, freshly-stitched side and you were under immense pressure because you had to avoid any connection between your knife and Lars, for Truth's sake. Look, I know you will hate me for saying this but no one is perfect."

The blue-eyed woman bit her lip as she hid her face behind a towel. "Kay wouldn't have killed the man," she whispered. "She would have found a way to prevent this death…"

Riza grabbed her shoulders and shook her roughly. "Listen closely, Nessa, because I won't say this again: Kay wasn't perfect and you have no reason to beat yourself up all the time just because you have some inferior-complex regarding her. She is dead and you are alive. And Kay couldn't throw a knife to save her life while you are nearly as good as Maes if not even better," she said seriously. "So – get up and deal with it. It was an accident and furthermore: that guy was the head of a killer squad. Killing him is nothing you should feel guilty for. You saved the children and especially Lars with it."