The Heist

AN: Hey guys! I hope 2016 is treating you all well. I just realized that I forgot to respond to some of the anonymous reviewers last chapter. I'm so sorry! I'm glad many of you are still tuning in to this story, though! It's been a wild ride, and I can't believe I'm writing the second-last chapter of this fanfic.

HappyAnt21: Yup, it's Izumi! Thanks for the review!

loveneverchanger: Can I just sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart for reviewing the past chapters and leaving a really nice note at the end? Thank you so much for that vote of confidence. Yes, work and personal life for me have been a little crazy last year, but I gotta say that writing this fic helped pull me through, so I can't help but give it my best shot.

Also, I took the time to review the entire story so that I can plan out the last two chapters and make sure that I don't leave out any dangling threads. One of the things I noticed is that I didn't explain a couple of concepts very well. I'm sorry if this was a point of confusion; my outline had detailed explanations for these, but I realized that I might not have explained them very well within the context of the story. So, here's a more elaborate explanation for some of the terms:

The Oblique Era: This is a period of time in Xing when many of the the imperial traditions started to break down, and the country was revolutionized. It spanned fifty years, and Henry Chu was born in the midst of the era. One of the major changes in the Xingese political infrastructure is that the Fifty Families eventually dissolved. The last emperor (Ling's paternal grandfather) declared the system defunct, and the government moved towards a tamer monarchy in which the needs of the majority is prioritized over the need to appease all Families equally.

The Sanitary Movement: This refers to the "cleansing" of the Amestrian government during the revolt against Fuhrer Bradley (which is why people call it "Sanitary"). The aim was to purge corruption out of the Amestrian government that Bradley had perpetuated. The leading faction of the movement involved current president Grumman and Colonel Mustang's team of militants. During the movement, they found themselves short on money, and so they approached XYZ Ltd. for some loans. To this day, they are struggling to repay the loan, but the need to retrieve the Red Stone prototype became more urgent.

And yes, I now realized that I misspelled desert several times into dessert. How embarrassing, hehe!

Chapter 14

"Ling is quarantined."

Lan Fan froze, and for a moment her mind was suspended in utter blankness with no other streams of thought but the echoes of the Lieutenant's comment. The ride to Youswell had been as uneventful as it had been tense, and she had hoped to come to the meeting point with at least some reassuring news of her friend. Quarantine was not reassuring.

"What?" she managed to squeak after a while. "W-what do you mean? Why did they throw him in there?"

Lieutenant Hawkeye brushed a stray lock of hair from her eyes and shrugged helplessly at Lan Fan. "We received word from the Ambassador of Amestris that Ling accidentally got involved with the truckload of infected Amestrians in the Liu province. Along with them, he's been sent to the quarantine."

The cold wind suddenly seemed to bite a little colder. Her mind had yet to catch up to the plethora of questions that vied for her attention. But in a mere moment, the instinctual part of her had shoved the snowballing series of queries aside, and in its stead, she was confronted with what she needed to do.

"I'll go to Liu!" Lan Fan volunteered. "You said we need to split up anyway to the three cities that are buckling under the threat of the plague. I'll come along with those assigned to go to Liu province."

Hawkeye glanced at the group of state militants who were handling the Red Stones that Lan Fan and Paninya delivered less than an hour ago. They were under the strictest of surveillance to ensure that not a single one of the Red Stones would be taken away. Right now, the emergency in Xing was the top priority and all of their resources needed to be mobilized there. Only militants were supposed to be deployed. The select few who had been chosen to go would receive a reasonable dose of the Red Stone for protection.

"Look, this changes nothing except for a seat in the fast jets," Lan Fan explained. "I'm sure one of your guys might not even want to go to Xing anyway. I'm already immune, so this way, we can even save an entire dose for any of the ones infected in Xing."

Hawkeye nodded. "I have nothing against your plan. I suggest you run it by the Colonel just to get clearance though. When he agrees, board the jet on platform 81."

Lan Fan hoisted her backpack higher up her shoulder and began to run towards where Colonel Mustang was directing the effort of dividing the bounty proportionally into three. Paninya followed her.

"You want to go to Xing?" Lan Fan asked, looking back.

"Well, why not?" the dark girl asked back. "I already had my fair share of Red Stone intake, and you never know when you can use an extra hand." Lan Fan narrowed her eyes at the pun. Paninya grinned. "Or two."

Luckily, the Colonel didn't mind that they replace two of the militants assigned for Liu province. Out of the three cities that were targeted, Liu was the smallest one in terms of area and population. The fraction of Red Stone allotted for Liu was consequently smaller than the other ones. Unfortunately nobody knew the exact number of people affected by the plague. Testing for the presence of the pathogen took a while, so it was difficult to confirm just how many were really infected and how many were just under suspicion. A lot of those suspected to be ill were checking into the hospitals, but because of the widespread chaos and panic, more patients were also being checked in due to life-threatening injuries. Lan Fan was certain they had to account for them. It just seemed unfair otherwise. They wouldn't be dying if the biological weapons weren't released.

The jet ride was supposed to be very quick, but even sitting still for a few minutes made Lan Fan restless. Paninya was able to catch a decent nap beside her, but Lan Fan was not unfamiliar with foregoing sleep during stressful times. She had a pretty satisfying rest the previous night in the hidden cave in the canyon, and now she was just a bundle of unused energy.

She tried to recall back to the time when she'd been affected by the contagion, back when she was still trapped in Chu's secret laboratories. The sickness had caused muscle entropy within the first few days. She didn't remember a lot of details, just a mind-blowing sense of nausea and weakness... but then again, her memories of that time were all hazy. In any case, from her nebulous memories, she could hope that by the time they landed in Liu province, it would not yet be too late for the antidote to reverse the effects.

Agitated, she repositioned herself in her seat. How did Ling get involved with the sick Amestrians anyway? He was supposed to go to the City Hall, which was an hour's drive away from the hospital holding the quarantine, according to the Lieutenant. Burying her face in her hands, she tried to take a calming breath. He would be alright. They would make it in time... hopefully.

When the jet landed what felt like a lifetime later to Lan Fan, she was a fidgety sack of nerves, and almost jumped out of her seat as soon as the jet rolled to a stop. They didn't even use a proper port, the closest of which was a province away; instead, they landed in an abandoned clearing close to the hospital and were met by Xingese patrols. She and Paninya boarded one of the jeeps that would take them to the hospital, and waited until the Red Stones were packed properly and the others managed to get a seat.

She hoped she would get a chance to help distribute the Red Stones – and in particular, get to see Ling and help him herself. But when they arrived and she walked into the hospital, she didn't make it past the lobby. Paninya stayed by her side, and when a receptionist approached them, she told them in broken Amestrian what Lan Fan understood as, "You have to wait here. No one is allowed to go past but those wearing proper attire." Lan Fan knew she must have been talking about the full-body protective suit, which was what many of the doctors were wearing, and was about to insist that it didn't matter – she was immune anyway.

"I'm assuming you are part of the group who's delivering the medicine?" a deep, masculine voice called out from behind them. Lan Fan spun around and found someone who was not at all familiar to her. Tall and medium-built, he had a patch of oiled-back brown hair covering his head and trimmed mustache of the same colour resting on his lip.

"Yes," she said, eyeing him up and down.

The man smiled. "I'm the ambassador that the President of Amestris sent this morning," he stretched out his hand. "Thank you for the speedy delivery. I heard the antidotes were hidden in Creta!"

Lan Fan ignored the comment. "You were with Ling!" she exclaimed. "What happened to him?"

The Ambassador looked at her, surprised perhaps by how brash she was acting. But Lan Fan was too high-strung to care. He seemed to understand her temperament, however, and offered a kind smile in return. "Let's sit over there and talk about it, shall we? I really think we ought to let the doctors handle things for now. It might not do us well if we get in the way, after all, and we can't afford to get blamed for yet another thing!"

As they settled down on a bench along the wall in the waiting area, the Ambassador narrated of how Ling had tried to save the infected Amestrians from a bunch of vigilantes trying to kill them. Lan Fan cursed Ling's heroic tendencies. It was ironic, of course, since she knew that without his penchant for wanting to save the day, she probably would have lost more than an arm.

The Ambassador then related to them the understandable yet somewhat disappointing result of his interview with King Xiao. Lan Fan felt that they probably could not do much better than that; as a matter of fact, the King probably acted more mercifully than the situation warranted. If the King did not hold them responsible for what happened and demand heavy compensation, he would lose the trust of his people.

They watched the bustle of the hospital, observing the busy fussing of doctors and nurses as they tended to patients. The largest hallway was lined with red bulbs, and Lan Fan had noticed that several hospital workers had wheeled the Red Stones down that way. She couldn't see beyond the wall that delineated the hallway, but she knew that must be where the quarantine was. Where Ling was.

Even then, it quite surprised her that only about half of the busy work was happening in that direction. There were plenty of other things competing for medical attention; the ER was especially hectic, with patients being delivered almost every ten minutes. In addition to that, three receptionists were frantically trying to reassign rooms, or so it seemed – Lan Fan could only catch a thread of their conversation among the constant humming of white noise.

"The city must be in chaos," Paninya said.

"My head is in chaos," Lan Fan muttered back. Paninya nudged her against the shoulder in a friendly way.

"C'mon, relax a bit, would you?"

It was much, much later when a doctor began to approach them. He had a smile on his face, and it did more than Lan Fan would admit in raising her hopes up a little.

"We've administered the medicine to the majority of those in quarantine. Now we separated them in individual rooms to allow each person enough space to recover, just in case someone's constitution might not favour the Red Stone and they can accidentally infect anyone with them."

The Ambassador nodded.

"But wait," Lan Fan said. "You said the majority? What about the rest?"

The doctor's face fell. "We were short one dose of the Red Stone. One patient did not receive his share."

Lan Fan groaned. If she didn't think they had a miserable sort of luck before, she definitely did now. Unbidden, the memory of the spilled liquid Red Stones came to her mind, and she cursed the bandits who had tried to hinder their escape from Creta. If only they had managed to exit Creta without any incident, then perhaps there wouldn't be anyone left without a cure.

And judging by their ill-fate, she suddenly had a sinking notion who it might be.

"Is it Ling Yao?" she managed to ask in a small voice. The doctor looked at her as if she had some kind of telepathic powers, and that was when the sinking feeling metamorphosed into something more like a ten-ton anchor being dropped to the ground from the second-story of the king's palace. She buried her face in her hand, trying to stop herself from seething.

"The young man insisted that every other patient be taken care of first," the doctor added. "But when we got to the last dose of Red Stone, there were still two of them left."

Lan Fan felt a growl threatening to escape her throat. She only barely managed to contain it when she forced herself to calm down. It wouldn't be a very appropriate display of emotions if she lost her temper in a hospital filled with dying people.

"Can I please see him?" she asked, her voice straining to keep its volume down.

"Uh, I'm sorry, unless you're of direct relation to him, I cannot advice–"

"Yes! Yes, I actually am of direct relation to him!" Lan Fan fished for her marriage certificate from her pocket, and opened the folded document. "I'm married to him! Yup, I'm his wife. Says so here."

"Wait, what?" Paninya shrieked in response, grabbing the paper from Lan Fan's hands. The girl's eyes widened to the size of saucers as she read the certificate. Her gaze slowly peeled away from the creased paper to her friend. "How dare you? You got married and you didn't even invite me!" Her voice squeaked at the end out of downright indignation.

Lan Fan could only shrug at Paninya, feeling like this wasn't the appropriate time to explain everything. She turned back to the doctor. "Please let me see my husband. We've taken a dose of Red Stone ourselves, so the plague should be less likely to infect us." Lan Fan didn't bother to mention that her case was more complicated than that.

The doctor looked helplessly at the certificate, and then finally sighed. "Alright. Follow me. You will need to suit up even if you say you've already ingested the antidote."

He led them down the hallway lined with red lights, and all the while they were walking, Paninya was haranguing her about getting married without letting her best-friend-in-the-entire-world know about it and proceeded to declare her a complete traitor.

-o-

The interrogation room was smaller than Yuna thought it would be. Or perhaps, it could all just be a part of the poor lighting. Goodness, how do these Amestrian militants work in such dimly lit atmospheres? If they intended for it to appear menacing, she knew that such a superficial thing would never work on Henry Chu. There were very few things that worked on Henry Chu.

Violence was one of them.

And Yuna had not forgotten how to fight.

She sprinted to where Henry was standing, and sent a low-kick aiming for his ankle; it was a move that had caught her own son many times when she had trained him, but Henry just shifted his foot away. She looked up at him, smirked for one moment, before dodging his downward punch by sliding against the floor and emerging behind him. She sent her elbow against the crook of his knee, but he recovered from the resulting imbalance quickly. On her way up, she blocked the series of attacks he sent her, but by that time, she knew it was over. She flipped backwards, distancing herself from him, and stood in a non-aggressive posture.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "What? Tired already? You women really age so quickly," he sneered.

"Who are you calling old?" Izumi barked, and Yuna only had to look past Henry's shoulder to find the other woman standing behind him near the door, where Yuna had been only a moment before. They had switched their initial positions during the fight. Henry glanced back at Izumi with distaste, as if admonishing her for the constant interruption, but his eyes widened when he saw what was in her hands.

Two more slivers of Red Stone.

"Got a lot of secret pockets there," Izumi said.

Yuna noticed Henry stop himself from searching his clothes in time, knowing that that action would just confirm that he'd been caught off guard. While Yuna was engaging him, he had not expected Izumi to pilfer his other sources of remedy.

Instead, he collectedly turned back to Yuna with all the poise of a snake... an angry one.

"You've really sunk low, Yuna," Henry snarled. "It used to be that you can almost hold your own against me, and now, you need another middle-aged wench to try and handle me."

Yuna choked on a laugh, knowing full well that Henry was spouting face-saving nonsense considering that he had barely hidden his surprise at Izumi's stunt. "Don't flatter yourself. If handling you is all I intended to do I would have never brought Izumi along."

Chu waited for her to continue.

"Consider her a witness," Yuna added, keeping an eye on him as she pulled out a neatly folded bundle of sheets from her vest pocket. "For a legal procedure, of course. I want you to hand over XYZ Ltd. to Ling."

There was an elongated moment's pause in which Henry did nothing but stare back at her blankly. Nobody made a move. Then he erupted into a boisterous, violent laugh, almost doubling over in his effort to control his humour.

It took a while for him to finish, but Yuna stood there patiently just watching. When he was done, his eyes were wet with tears, probably the only tears capable of coming out of him. He was still chuckling when he told her, "Well, what audacity you have! Why don't you wait while I call my lawyer?" He laughed again.

Yuna smiled, not begrudging him his mirth, even as she watched Izumi deliver a powerful, precise kick near the base of his spine. A loud, sickening crack echoed in the small room.

Henry's laugh was cut short. Instead, a flash of pain appeared on his face, right before he crumpled to the ground, his legs suddenly useless. He convulsed for a moment, trying to regain connection to lost nerves, but to no avail. Yuna slowly walked over to him, crouching as she reached his side. His face was ruddy with the effort of containing his pain, and his forehead was moist with beaded sweat.

Izumi might call herself just a housewife, or a shop owner at best, but there was no denying the woman's advanced skills in martial arts. It was a constant source of amusement and envy, even for Yuna.

"You've grown way too over confident," Yuna told him quietly. From a pocket she pulled out her phone. "Now, what were you saying about a lawyer? You can give me his number and we'll make a call... or you can sign the papers and have that tiny ruby gem Izumi's holding to fix your back."

Henry sent her a seething glare.

"You know what you always do best, Henry?" Yuna continued. "It's not womanizing, unfortunately. Not even running a business. And it's especially not figuring out certain geological mysteries involving Drachman volcanoes," she gave him a teasing smile. "But as much as it galls me to admit, what you're really good at is keeping your life. You married me to avoid a life of persecution in Xing, you blackmailed and tricked Lan Fan into letting you live, and who knows how many other times you've bargained for your life in exchange of something you can give?"

Yuna jumped back deftly as Henry lashed out a hand to try and grab a hold of her. He missed, and he yelled out in pain as the action strained his ruined back.

"It won't be difficult to kill you when half of you is already dead," Yuna said. "And don't make the mistake of thinking I won't do it just because I haven't tried before."

"You're a fool," Henry managed to wheeze out in between pained gasps for breath. "You think you can make Ling owner of my company simply by having me sign some documents? The process would take weeks! It could take months to make the transfer legal!"

"Oh please, you and I both know how many strings each of us can pull. And I'm surprised that after all this time you still worry about legality!" Yuna scoffed. "Never mind that. I'll take care of it. Just sign the papers." Carefully, she returned to his side and crouched down to settle the document on the ground beside his hand. Izumi loomed over him, placing each of her feet on either side of him, and pinned his left arm to his back. He groaned, but couldn't do much but wiggle his right arm.

"Honestly, I'd have thought you would agree right away!" Yuna exclaimed, dodging his arm. "Your options are so clear. Death on one hand, life on the other. I've made the choice so easy, I really don't understand where this petulance is coming from." Finally, she leaned closer to him. "Or is it your clan you worry about? Your company, after all, is their life blood. Just think of it this way: with your death, you guarantee that you'll never, ever be able to lift another finger to help out your clan. But if you live... you never know."

It wasn't in Yuna's best interest to insinuate that perhaps Henry might still be able to live a life outside of bars – it definitely was not an idea she should be putting in his head. But Henry was a glutton for the taste of life, and she knew that he also knew if there was anything more he could do to help his clan – imprisoned or not – he wouldn't be able to do it if he was dead.

The look he sent her was murderous. She matched his stare with all the steeliness she possessed until he buckled, and angrily grabbed the pen she had laid out on the floor beside the paper.

Once he had signed all the sheets, she grabbed it and stood up. Izumi released him.

"Hey, you promised the stone!" Henry yelled, squirming on the ground.

"So I did," Yuna said as she walked around him, back to the doorway where Izumi had already unlocked the door. They opened it to reveal a host of state militants standing guard outside. Izumi dropped the two stones in the hands of the lead.

"They'll be taking good care of you," Yuna added one last time, before walking through the group. She didn't look back; she only clutched the rolled up papers in her shaking hand, trying not to over-think the events that just transpired, nor of what it would imply in the near future. The latter, she would leave to Ling.

"XYZ Ltd., hmm?" Izumi muttered beside her. "Not bad. Maybe now you don't have to pay your meat in installments."

Yuna glanced at her sideways, and gave her a smile. This had been a last minute plan, but she'd seen a window of opportunity, and she at least had to try. Her son had been working way too hard. "You better sign the papers too. I'd like to say I dragged you all the way here so we can be a dynamic duo, but alas, that day is still way off." With that, she handed the other woman the document as they headed out of the precinct.

-o-

Ling had spent the better part of the evening transitioning between a blurry, hazy kind of consciousness and an equally blurry, hazy active dream-state that he couldn't quite call unconsciousness. People were supposed to not remember anything when they were unconscious. Their mind was to be in a state of rest. His mind seemed like it had taken a trip down the rabbit hole without even the decency to trick him into thinking he was asleep.

He even dreamed of Lan Fan. In the feverish nebula of his mind, she'd been standing on the bridge in the Yao gardens, looking into the reflecting pool in that unique, contemplative way of hers. He distinctly remembered the pool to be quite a deep emerald in shade, but in this version, it was a vibrant red. For some reason, Ling didn't even find it odd. He only felt a strange urge to come up to her and talk with her, because obviously it would make him feel better.

The illusion was shattered when a group of doctors came into the quarantine. Or at least, it seemed to Ling that the illusion had ceased, but he was not sure. He felt way too feverish.

When the doctors began carting off each of the patients one by one, Ling's mind had cleared a little, enough so that he began to comprehend bits and pieces of what was happening. They were being separated. When he'd caught the attention of one of the doctors, she'd explained that the Red Stones had finally come and they felt it was better if each patient tried to recuperate separately.

"Leave me last," he'd told them, and they did. Ling felt like he was cheating by vying for a Red Stone when he was the reason many of these people had found themselves infected in the first place.

When they had finally gotten to him, they pulled him from his futon and helped him into a small, clean room. Along the way they mentioned that all the Red Stones were gone. He supposed he should have felt some kind of disappointment or shock from that news, but his feelings didn't change. He just felt groggy. When they added that they would try to get an extra Red Stone from one of the two other sites but that it might take a while, Ling thanked them, but he wasn't sure if they were serious or merely trying to pacify any thoughts of hopelessness.

A few minutes after he'd been tucked in, three people came in his suite. At first he thought they were all just doctors, but after squinting through their protective headgears, he realized only one of them was.

He heard Dr. Tan briefly say, "I'll give you some time to yourselves," before walking out of the room. When the door shut behind him, Lan Fan hurried to his side.

"You should be thankful you look like a sorry sack of flesh because if you didn't, I would punch you," she whispered to him with enough intensity that Ling had to question whether his mind had reverted back to its dream state.

"Wait, what?" he managed to croak out.

Lan Fan ran her hand through her bangs in an agitated manner. "Why in the world would you... h-how could you even think... ugh, I don't even know where to start! Plunging into a crowd filled with sick people? What were you thinking?"

Ling tried to clear his throat. "They were being bombed."

The frown on Lan Fan's face melted away for a moment, but then it was replaced by a low-lidded stare exuding sarcasm. "What is it about explosions you're so attracted to?"

"You know they are innocent. I'm sure you would have been appalled if you'd seen what was going on."

"And this?" she asked, hand gesturing to his reclining figure on the bed. "Why would you refuse a Red Stone?"

"I didn't refuse," Ling clarified. "I just told them to leave me last. The other patients had no choice in their circumstances. But me, I half-orchestrated for this to happen. It would be cruel for me to be cured while one of them doesn't. Really, I'd consider it murder."

Lan Fan scoffed, but didn't argue.

"Remember the time when we went to my father's office in Tobha?" Ling asked her. She gave him a curious look and nodded. "There was a father and a daughter who was killed afterwards, because my father assumed they were related to the break-in. At that time, I thought their sacrifice was worth it if only I could continue to plan my father's downfall. Same with Shai from the very first operation who tried to steal the Dealer's notebook. For the longest time I thought their sacrifices would not be in vain."

"And now?"

Ling sighed and covered his eyes with his arm. "There are too many deaths. I don't know what to think anymore."

"Then don't think." Lan Fan scooted closer, and she brushed a hand through his hair. Her hand felt cool against his heated skin. "Just try to rest. The doctor said they will try to get an extra Red Stone down from Yin province if there are any left. But since all the affected cities are in lockdown, anyone who needs to exit from Yin would need to obtain clearance that they're safe to leave. With all the tests and documentation and whatnot, the doctor said they expect the back-up to get here tomorrow night. So in the meantime, just rest. The plague doesn't act so quickly if you're at least trying your best to give your body a fighting chance."

Ling settled back deeply into his pillow. "At least I have a fighting chance," Ling mumbled. "Apparently the Chu clan doesn't."

"What are you talking about?"

Ling lifted his arm from his face. "The Ambassador told me that King Xiao plans to subdue the clan since they're being problematic. I don't even want to know how that's going to turn out."

Lan Fan made a face. "You're worried about this now? It's not like he's going to cull them. Xing is a modern nation. He'd be charged with crime both against state and humanity if he does that. If anything, just the fact that it would throw Xing back centuries in the opinion of the rest of the world would definitely make King Xiao avoid that option at all costs."

"Still," Ling added softly. "We can probably hope for an assimilation program at best, and that's still quite bad. An entire people, losing their culture and heritage because of me."

"Oh stop being so morbid!" Lan Fan shook him gently. "It's the plague, I tell you. It's getting to your head. Sickness always does. Or does this still have anything to do with Henry Chu telling you he's proud?"

When he didn't respond, she sighed and turned away. "Ling, I already told you–"

It was then that Ling was attacked with a coughing fit so violent, he had to curl up on his side. He threw a hand over his mouth, despite knowing full well that it would do little good. He felt Lan Fan rub his back, waiting patiently until his coughing ceased. When he pulled his hand away, it was spotted with red stains and he could taste the metallic flavour of blood in his mouth. He felt Lan Fan hesitate, and then she gently opened up his palm.

"That's not good," she said. "That didn't happen to me until three days after getting infected."

Ling swallowed, exhausted after his bout of coughs.

"Could it be because of that thing that makes him faint?" Paninya asked from the corner of the room. "Maybe his poor health is exacerbating the effects of the plague."

Ling's brows furrowed. "You mean hunger? I wouldn't call that poor health. If anything, I'd call that normal." Now that he thought about it though, he hadn't been able to eat anything at all for a while now. The small snack he'd obtained earlier he had thrown up. But now he was hooked up to an IV drip. Shouldn't that help somewhat?

Lan Fan shook her head. "I don't know what it is, but I'm not certain we can wait until tomorrow for the Red Stone anymore."

There was a moment of silence, as he and Paninya shared an uncertain glance.

"What are you saying we do, Lan Fan?" Paninya asked, even though by her tone, she seemed to already know what Lan Fan was trying to imply. She was just incredulous, and Ling had to admit he was too. They would have to leave.

"Yīnyún, the capital city of Yin province, is less than an hour's drive north from this site," Lan Fan said. "The general hospital there is where the other group is quarantined, and that's where the other Red Stones will be."

"And may I remind you that both cities are on lockdown?" Paninya said, hands open in a gesture of disbelief.

"Great!" Lan Fan answered. "That means the roads would mostly be clear. Better for driving."

"Unless, of course, you count the people who might come after us," Ling said.

Lan Fan was silent for a while, staring at the floor in concentration. Then she turned back to Ling and his red-spotted hand. "If anything happens and the Red Stone doesn't make it here by tomorrow – and you have to admit that with the bureaucracy currently in place to implement the quarantine, many things might happen – you would be too affected by the plague for us to be able to do anything ourselves. And to be frank, I have more confidence in us getting there ourselves than waiting for whoever would be sent to come here."

Ling pushed himself up on his elbows. "But if we get caught, we'd be killed. That's one of the policies for the lockdown. Not just me. You two as well. They'll assume the worst."

Lan Fan did not answer. She turned to Paninya. "Can you steal Ling out of the hospital?"

Paninya gave her pun a flat-look, but seemed to think about it. Finally, she told Lan Fan, "Get out of your protective suit."

-o-

Lan Fan supposed that with both their hair down, Ling might pass off as her, especially with the bulky headgear that pretty much covered the entire head except for a small plastic portion for the face. The suit ended up a bit short for him, which was a problem because they couldn't hide his left hand within the sleeve. So he had to put it inside the bodysuit, tucked against his torso. He was visibly taller too, taller than Paninya, but if they avoided the doctor who took them there, nobody might even think twice about who they were. Paninya told her that she'd use the trip from the dressing room as an opportunity to sneak out of the hospital with Ling. But they wouldn't actually remove the suits; first, it was much easier to go around the hospital if other people thought they might be doctors or assistants; and secondly, Ling was contagious and the suit would prevent him from infecting anybody. They would meet at the parking lot where the vehicles that had transported the crates of Red Stone were parked.

Lan Fan slipped out of the room a good few minutes after Paninya helped Ling out. She knew that the best thing they could do to increase their chances of getting out was to ensure they would not be discovered immediately. She packed the sheets and pillows into a human figure on the bed to trick any doctors at first glance. But after she sneaked out of the room, she made sure to return to the doctor who had allowed them to visit Ling. She told him that Ling was now sleeping peacefully. Hopefully, that would make him believe there was no need to check up on Ling so quickly. She also passed by the Ambassador and told him that she and Paninya would visit the cafeteria in the opposite wing for some dinner.

After that, it was just a matter of combining stealth and luck for her to sneak to the parking lot. Paninya said she'd choose the farthest vehicle from the entrance so that the rumble of the engine would not alert anyone right away.

In hindsight, Lan Fan guessed she could not have been assigned a better companion than Paninya. The girl was probably used to these kinds of escapes from all the larceny commissions she provided. Bodyguarding, on the other hand, was not quite so... evasive. And illegal.

She noticed Paninya sending her a wave through the windows of one of the jeeps, and Lan Fan didn't waste any time jumping right in. "You two would have to guide me through the roads," Paninya said as she revved up the engine with as much care as she could. "I can't read Xingese." Paninya began to drive slowly, easing themselves out of the lot.

There were patrols lining the block of the hospital, and they had to stop the jeep some ways off. The night was dark enough and the jeep was black and its headlights were turned off, so it added a little to their luck that they could not exactly be noticed unless someone was very observant. Paninya studied the patrols for a minute and half, before deciding she could not pass through without diversion.

"Most patrols are on a rotation of at least an hour," Paninya said. "I don't know how it's usually done in Xing, but if we had the terrible misfortune of coming out just after the shift has changed, we might be stuck here for a while. How do you want to this?" She turned to Lan Fan who was sitting in the passenger seat. "If you were to distract the patrols, can you manage to sneak out of the melee again and catch up to us on the other side of the patrol area?"

"Uhm..." Lan Fan thought for a moment. She might not be able to do it without knocking everyone out, and that, unfortunately, might attract more attention.

"I have an idea in mind, and I'm pretty sure I can pull it off," Paninya said. "So if you can manage to drive this car even for a short distance, it would help me a lot."

"I'll try," Lan Fan said, hoping that trying would be good enough. She took over Paninya's seat, as the girl climbed out of the jeep.

"I need you to drive straight through to the other side of the patrol area as soon as you see the patrols leave, okay?" Paninya instructed her. "Then wait for me at the curb with the hospital sign. Try to keep your head down while you wait." Then she jogged across the lot.

Lan Fan sat behind the wheel, straining her eyes against the dark. Her palm was sweaty. She had driven before, so she knew how to drive. But she hadn't done it since she lost her arm.

It was about a five minute wait before she and Ling began to notice that something had caught the attention of the patrols ahead. After a while, they all ran to the east, the same direction that Paninya had taken.

Time to go, then.

Lan Fan stepped on the pedal, careful to mimic Paninya's speed earlier to avoid making a whole lot of noise. The route she had to take was straight and short, but her heart drummed in her chest; anxious thoughts of someone discovering their jeep kept her jumpy. But she kept her gaze straight and her pace even, and eventually they managed to cross the threshold of the patrol area. As instructed, Lan Fan turned left and drove to the side of the road where the big hospital sign announced the building. There, hand cold with sweat, she sat gingerly waiting for Paninya to come back.

She and Ling sat there for ten tense minutes, until she heard, more than saw, Paninya coming from the side.

"Scoot, scoot!" Paninya waved for Lan Fan to get back in the passenger seat. "Hurry!" Once there was space for her to get in, Paninya sat in the driver's seat, and began to drive away. Lan Fan didn't bother to ask what she did. She already knew that thieves were stingy with their secrets, and quite frankly, she didn't think it was as important as getting to Yin.

It was mostly Ling who helped Paninya navigate around the city blocks. Lan Fan could read the signs, but as she'd never actually been to Xing before, she had little knowledge of the road system, whereas Ling had at least spent some time vacationing in the country.

While they were in the city, they kept a slow pace just in case they would come across another set of patrols. Ling told them that the previous day, several Families had tried to sabotage the quarantine to rescue some of their relatives. The city had to double down their securities after that.

"It might work to our advantage though," Ling said. "The three Families attacked from the south and the west. We're heading north, so there's a good chance there might be less patrols posted there."

They crawled at a turtle's pace, and Lan Fan felt so tense she almost wanted to tell Paninya to just speed up and get out of the city. But she trusted that the girl knew what she was doing. And that trust was not misplaced. Paninya kept her calm and strolled to park gently whenever they noticed a patrol car cruising somewhere nearby. When one of them had been parked right where they needed to pass by, Paninya had them repeat the same routine that they performed in the parking lot – distraction, Lan Fan taking over the driving for a while, and Paninya catching up to them.

All in all, it took them half an hour to get past the northern border of the city, much more time than Lan Fan had anticipated. Still, the majority of patrols were assigned within the city itself and not outside. Which meant that now that they were on the freeway, there was very little holding them back from stomping on the gas pedal, which was exactly what Paninya did.

Lan Fan felt vigilant the entire time, hoping any minute that they would see the sign welcoming them to Yin province.

A bright beam of light suddenly blinded their windshield, and for a moment, Lan Fan thought there was oncoming traffic who hadn't noticed them. But a few seconds later, the beam disappeared, only to come back again.

"Oh damn!" Ling called out. She looked back at him and found him peering out of the window, not ahead on the road, but up at the sky. "A helicopter."

Lan Fan's hope that they hadn't been noticed evaporated entirely when the beam continued to focus on them as they sped down the highway. Even as the welcome sign to Yin province finally passed them and they took the exit, the helicopter continued to watch them.

As soon as they merged onto the road that would take them to the core of Yin's capital city, Yīnyún, the bright lights of a police car flashed on their rearview mirror, adding to the assault on their vision. Paninya cursed, and opened her own headlights. "They know we're here, so there's no point in being inconspicuous. Might as well see better in the dark."

She pressed the pedal harder, and wove into the labyrinthine roads of the outer parts of the city. By this point, Ling and Lan Fan didn't have time to read the signs anymore, and they allowed Paninya to drive wherever she thought it would help them lose the police car.

The roads started to get narrower and narrower, until many of them were just two-lane streets bordered by run-down buildings and seedy shops. A gunshot tore through the air and a bullet managed to lodge itself on the rear window of the jeep. Ling buried his head between his arms, trying to stay low. A torrent of bullets followed the first one, peppering the metal skin of the jeep with holes, shattering one of the side mirrors, and popping one of their back tires.

Their car skidded against the road, and Paninya made a desperate turn to the right, uncaring of what she hit. When finally, there was no hope of them surviving should they remain in the uncontrollable jeep, Paninya jerked the brake, and they stopped abruptly.

"Let's get out," she told them, and Lan Fan lost no time exiting and helping Ling scramble out of his seat. They ran down the rest of the alley, hearing the police car speeding a couple of blocks away.

"Look, we need to split up." Paninya said. "There's no way we can outrun them if they're in a car, but if they suspect that we've gone our separate ways, some of them will get on foot as well. I'll leave you two," she suggested. "I'm used to the solo act, and since you're used to bodyguarding, you're better off sticking with Ling." With a quick nod, Paninya hoisted herself up on a fire escape staircase against the wall of a decrepit townhouse, and disappeared up in the dark.

Lan Fan supported Ling with her shoulder and tried to make good pace down the alley. They turned a few corners, keeping a steady jog. After a while, they could no longer make out the sound of the car pursuing them, so she assumed that either they were too far away or that Paninya was right and that the cops were now trying to track them down on foot. When Ling began to stumble, Lan Fan decided to stop by the wall of a building. There, Ling sat on the ground, panting heavily and fogging up his face mask. He then started to cough heavily again, spraying drops of blood across the mask's plastic cover. Spooked, Lan Fan crouched beside him to rub his back again, despite knowing that it was ineffective.

"Shh," she said, although she knew that shushing him would also be ineffective.

After a moment, Ling stopped. He lay his head back against the wall, breathing raggedly. When he could catch his breath, he told her, "I... I can't seem to feel my legs anymore."

Lan Fan patted his thigh, and tried to reassure him. "You're just tired." But deep down, she knew that it was an effect of the plague affecting Ling a lot faster than normal.

She heard the softest sound of soles rubbing against broken asphalt only a split-second before the sight of a gun barrel entered her peripheral vision. But that split-second was enough time for her to lean away, grab the cop's wrist to point down to the ground, and heave herself up to plant a foot against his neck. His resulting imbalance gave her the chance to pry the gun away from him, and to give him a blow against the head that knocked him to the ground. When it was clear he was out cold, she grabbed the gun and slid it into her pocket. Then she turned back to Ling.

"We have to go. More of them would follow." She tried to help him up, but she soon understood that he hadn't been exaggerating when he said he couldn't feel his legs. He couldn't even kneel. Finally, she pushed her left side against his, hoisted his arm around her shoulders with her right hand, and tried to pull him up by sheer force. Since he was taller and heavier than her and she didn't have the extra arm to wrap around his waist, it made for a very awkward balancing act.

"We can't run," he said, his voice gravelly.

Lan Fan looked around desperately, trying to see if there was any way they could escape the situation. The police car was probably parked near the vicinity of where they'd lost control of their own jeep. If they could get back there, take out anyone else who was waiting, they'd be able to use that car to get to the hospital. But they'd traveled quite a bit of distance already, and if they wanted to continue to evade more cops, they needed to go back using an indirect route.

And there was no knowing when the cops would eventually call for more back-up.

She was frantically assessing their surroundings, when in the alleyway beside the building she noticed something on the ground: it was a large manhole in a secluded area, and it evoked a flashback... and an idea.

She dragged herself and Ling towards the hole, set Ling down on the ground, and lifted up the cover. She was harassed by a nauseating stench that caused her to remember more than she cared for at the moment, but she quelled those memories as quickly as they came. Looking down, the walkway below was not that far down. The sewer was only a littler taller than Ling. Gently, she helped Ling lower himself to the bottom of the sewer, and she followed, covering the manhole back up again.

When her feet touched the ground, she found Ling sitting on the walkway, head lolling against the metal ladder. He was panting. With only just the two of them, Lan Fan didn't think it was such a bad idea if she removed his head gear for a while. It would let him breathe better... though how much better, she wasn't really sure. The odour was enough to make her gag.

Once she'd gotten it off, she found Ling's skin an ugly shade of pale, glistening with sweat. There wasn't a lot of light that streamed through the holes of the manhole's lid, but whatever managed to get through was more than enough for her to assess him. He looked terrible. Gently, she pulled him down to lie his head on her lap.

"This... this seems familiar," Ling said, and he gave her a weak smile. "Running from... from people with guns and... taking refuge with all the other crap." He laughed softly.

She smiled back, using her left sleeve to wipe the sweat from his face. His skin was heated with the blaze of fever.

"You know," he began again, closing his eyes. "They might not kill all of us."

Lan Fan stopped her ministration.

"They're only worried about the sickness spreading, so..."

"So what?" she prompted, tensing at where she felt this was going.

"They'd have no reason to harm you or Paninya."

Lan Fan almost felt like laughing at the absurdity of his implied suggestion. But her face was frozen in tight neutrality, almost as if it would shatter if she moved.

Ling opened his eyes and looked straight at her. "I always said it's my head before yours."

She felt a heaviness so uncomfortable, that she decided the best way to react was to brush it off. She rolled her eyes. "I never got the logic behind that. I'm your bodyguard, so it kind of defeats the point."

"You're still my employee so you're still my resp–"

"Ling, listen to me," she interrupted. "You've been acting strangely depressing that I can't help but assume it's the plague getting to your brain. But it's obviously affecting your decision making, so I'm going to set a few things straight.

Two years ago, you pulled me from beneath a blown-off vehicle, wrapped up my bleeding stump and sent me to a hospital where I could be taken care of. Two years later, you give me and Grandpa a decent place to live that would not drive us further into poverty, give me a steady job with great perks, and give us a new chance after being deported. What makes you think I won't give nearly as much for you? The truth is that there is no scenario here where you don't come out alive or well, because I'm not going to let that happen."

"I don't keep scorecards," Ling told her in a low voice.

"That's not my point!" she shot back. "You think I'm doing this because it's some kind of obligation or to appease my own sense of debt? Fine, I'll rephrase it for you. You gave me a friend! Why is that not enough for you to believe I'm not about to just cast you off? You're important to me, and if you're still looking for a reason why you're different from your father, you don't have to look any farther than me. Your father tried to steal more from someone who already had little, while you... you gave me more than I could ever hope for, even when I didn't deserve it."

Lan Fan breathed deeply. She never knew she was capable of lecturing Ling, but she'd always been pragmatic, and if this was what she needed to do to knock him out of his pity party, then that was what she would do. By the way Ling was staring back at her, she wasn't sure if he was impressed or surprised or touched... but his eyes were focused on hers, unblinking and piercing.

She turned away. "Look, I'm not good at this, okay? The whole sentimental thing. I'm not the best person you can turn to to have heart-to-heart talks, and the best I can do is ramble or spurt nonsense like that night I called you beautiful."

Finally, Ling's lips broke into a soft smile. "Why, thank you Lan Fan. But don't be so harsh on yourself, because you're doing a great job. I wish I can offer you more than just the money for being a spectacular motivational speaker, actually."

Something about what he said reminded her of his bribes to get her to accept his employment offer all those months ago. It nagged at her, like an itchy restlessness, like an unexplained impulsiveness she could not quite define. Something funny and ironic, but fitting.

"Well, there was something else you offered."

With that, she leaned down to him and planted her lips against his. He had bribed her with a kiss, and she could never have fathomed back then why that would be a fitting payment, but she did now.

There was no rush of adrenaline, no sense of impending doom, and Lan Fan didn't feel as if a kiss would alter their circumstances in any way at this point. As a matter of fact, it didn't feel anything like she imagined it would, nothing like how books and movies portrayed it – no impassioned heat and no jitters. It just felt natural, and for someone like her who'd spent most of her life feeling out of place, that was better than good enough.

When she pulled away, Ling's eyes was wider than she'd ever seen them. Then his expression turned crestfallen. At first she thought it was too much for him to handle.

"You realize I just coughed up blood, right? Like five times in the past hour?" he whispered, grimacing.

Lan Fan shrugged. His lips had been warm and soft.

"I just puked too!" he added. When she didn't respond, he covered his face with his hands and let out an embarrassed wail. "Ohh, I feel so unsexy right now." He coughed a bit before adding, "It wasn't supposed to happen like this!"

"Ling!" she said, exasperated. "Some people would say thank you, you know."

"That was the first! You know how I will remember this? With – cough – me all grimy and dirty and with the scent of sewer wafting about." He punctuated his complaint with a smaller cough.

"Oh, you mean like the first time we met? Our first 'date'? Our first near-death experience? And we didn't exactly tie the knot in a garden wedding either. I don't know about you, but I think I see a pattern."

"I want a do-over when I'm hot."

"You are hot! You have a raging fever!"

"When I look hot."

"Okay, remind me to kiss you again when you have an encounter with another explosion."

Ling coughed again, this time a long series of hard hacks, and Lan Fan knew their joking time was over. He'd gotten too excitable.

"Alright, here's what I'm going to do," Lan Fan said. "I will use the sewer system to try to get back to the place where we abandoned the jeep. I have a feeling that the police car will be somewhere nearby. That would be our ticket out of here. I'll try to meet up with Paninya. Can you wait here for us?"

Ling shrugged. "I won't be able to do anything else."

"I'll be thirty minutes tops. I promise. Even if I don't find Paninya, I'll come back for you."

He nodded, and she propped him back up against the wall. She stood up. When she felt the weight of the gun she'd taken from the cop in her pocket, she approached the edge of the walkway and dropped it in the sludge. No matter what happened, she wasn't going to kill again. After saying a final farewell, she ran down the walkway in the southern direction. She counted herself lucky that she had been able to tell which general direction they'd taken while trying to escape, even with the twists and turns they'd made.

When she found a different manhole, she pulled herself out of the sewers to continue her search above ground. She hoped that she'd distanced herself sufficiently from where the cop had fallen so that anyone looking for their comrade wasn't going to discover her right away. She tried to trace back their steps, using the landmarks she'd noticed before, like a peculiarly coloured high-rise in the distance, or the way the ground was sloping – uphill meant north.

She managed to stumble upon their wrecked jeep almost by accident, and at first she wasn't even sure if it really was the one they'd left behind. It looked so much worse than she expected. Even though she knew they've been shot several times, she hadn't had time earlier to really absorb the results. Lan Fan spent a few minutes roaming the nearby streets to look for the police car, and found it around the corner in the next intersection.

Along with two other cops.

Lan Fan immediately ducked back behind the wall. This shouldn't exactly be a problem, but with their guns, it might be tricky. Looking down on the ground, she searched for anything she could use as a projectile. When she found a broken bottle by a garbage bin, she picked up one of the heftier pieces and tossed it to the opposite side of her alley, past the intersection where the cops were lounging. The glass piece shattered on the other side, attracting their attention. She flattened herself against the wall, and watched as the cops emerged from the corner, their backs turned to her as they peered in the dark to see what had caused the commotion.

Losing no time, Lan Fan sprinted towards them, jumping on the nearest cop to kick him in the face. There was a snap and he fell back. Before he even hit the ground, Lan Fan was already focusing on the other one, who had already flashed out her gun. With a quick swipe of her hand against the woman's wrist, Lan Fan was able to deflect the gunshot that blasted from the cop's weapon. She followed it with a heavy headbutt against the woman's forehead, which would have worked more effectively if the cop wasn't wearing a cap. Regardless, she was disoriented enough that Lan Fan managed to disarm her. She then slammed the butt of the gun against the cop's temple, who then went sprawling on the ground, unconscious.

Lan Fan observed the two for a moment, sure that either one of them would spring back up to their feet to deal with her again. But her strikes must have been more efficient than she thought they'd be, because both cops were completely motionless on the ground.

She turned back, rounding the corner at the intersection where the cop car was waiting by the sidewalk. She got in, and disabled the speakers and the trackers on the dashboard. That would probably signal the station that the car had been compromised, but it was still better than being tracked down.

From her pocket, Lan Fan pulled out her phone. She didn't know how close Paninya was. She only hoped that Paninya would answer right away. The other girl often passed up phone calls when she was in a bind, and her phone was usually on silent so nothing would give her away. Lan Fan dialed her number anyway.

It was only after the fourth try that Paninya picked up.

"Where are you?" Lan Fan asked. "I'm in the cop car. Ling can't walk anymore, and we need to get going now."

"Tell me where to meet you."

"I'm near where our jeep died. Just turn around the intersection to the west. I'm parked here right now."

"Okay, I won't be long."

Paninya arrived minutes later, panting wildly. She threw herself in the driver's seat, prompting Lan Fan to frantically move away into the passenger side. Apparently, the thief had taken down two other policemen during their time apart. Lan Fan directed her to the manhole that led to the part of the sewage system where she'd left Ling.

"You left him in a sewer?" Paninya gasped. "Gosh, what a deserving pair you two make!"

"It was the only place I could think of to hide him!" Lan Fan said in her defense. When they reached the spot and they lifted the lid off the manhole, Lan Fan was relieved to see Ling safe and still awake.

Paninya volunteered to help him up, which would be a lot more difficult than getting him down. Just as soon as they emerged from the tunnel, Lan Fan began to hear the sound of approaching cars somewhere far off. She was certain that they must be the backups.

"Hurry!" she said. She hoisted Ling up, dragging him to the car. Paninya didn't bother replacing the lid back, and she made her way to the driver's side. Lan Fan was about to open up the door to the backseat, when a knife lodged itself right next to her hand touching the door handle. Turning around, she found the cop from earlier who had pursued them to this place. Disturbed that she didn't even notice that he'd regained consciousness, she began to contemplate dropping Ling where they stood in order to fight.

But she was surprised when it was Ling himself who acted.

"Stop!" he yelled, and the man showed the briefest reluctance in throwing his next knife, enough so that Ling could continue in one breath, "Don't move or I'll slide my mask! I'll do it even if you hit me. And you know I'll still be contagious when I'm dying."

The cop hesitated.

Ling moved a hand to his headgear's plastic mask as if to slide it up. When the cop appeared to be doubting him, Lan Fan watched as Ling proceeded to tear the entire headgear from his head. In a move that could have rivaled Izumi Curtis's hurling prowess, Ling then turned away to the sidewalk and threw up a bloody sludge that horrified even Lan Fan.

In a snap, the cop dropped his knife and dashed down the alleyway as far from them as he possibly could.

"Ling!" Lan Fan gasped. "Oh, that's really bad!" She pulled the knife that struck the car, tossed it away, and helped Ling into the vehicle. As soon as her butt touched the seat, Paninya set off.

Lan Fan thanked whatever gave her the idea to take the police car, because inside was a GPS. She grabbed it and programmed it to lead them to Yīnyún's General Hospital. It wasn't long after she'd done so that another police car appeared in the rearview mirror. And it was not long after that that it was joined by two more.

Paninya stepped on the gas a little more forcefully, and thanks to the GPS, they didn't have to grope around in the dark for how to get to their destination. They were still quite a bit away from the reach of the police cars but seeing that nobody else was on the road, it would not be long until the cops caught up sufficiently to start shooting.

Paninya drove through red lights, took bad turns and cut through curbs. She didn't care, and quite frankly, neither did Lan Fan. That was the only good thing about the lockdown. Everyone was expected to stay indoors, so their reckless driving didn't affect anyone else.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternal goose chase, the broad, white building of the hospital began to loom in the horizon. Paninya slammed the gas pedal down on the ground and didn't care what she hit – garbage bins, news posts, decorative shrubs. She went straight for the hospital gate.

The patrol guarding the area noticed them and was about to train their weapons on them, when Paninya hit the brakes, and threw herself out, hands in the air in the universal gesture of surrender.

"We're bringing in someone ill!" she yelled.

Lan Fan followed suit, knowing that many of the patrols would probably not understand Amestrian. She got out of her side of the car and repeated what Paninya was trying to say. When nobody released a bullet, Lan Fan gained enough confidence to pull Ling out the back, with his headgear back on, to show his condition to those guarding the gates.

The police cars came to a stop behind them, but by then, a stretcher was also coming out of the gates, pulled by several doctors in suits. The cops allowed Ling to be escorted into the hospital, but they pushed Lan Fan and Paninya against the car. They handcuffed the thief, and tried doing the same with Lan Fan, until they realized she didn't have another wrist.

Just when they were trying to decide what to do with her, a familiar Amestrian State militant came out of the gates, followed by a well-dressed Xingese young man. Lan Fan recognized the militant's jet black hair and suave look immediately.

"I know these kids," Colonel Mustang said. "It's alright. Let them go. We will deal with them." The young man beside him translated the words into Xingese.

Lan Fan was so glad to see the Colonel. She was so apprehensive when they left Amestris that she didn't pay attention to anyone else who'd been deployed to the other cities in Xing.

"They broke the lockdown policies!" the cop behind Lan Fan exclaimed. "And dozens of road rules!"

"I... I think there might be more to this than it seems," Mustang explained, and his companion once again translated for him. "Let them go, and we will sort it out with the Xingese officials assigned to keep an eye on us while we're here."

Begrudgingly, Lan Fan and Paninya were released. Lan Fan thanked Mustang profusely as he led them inside the hospital, but he gave them disapproving glances.

"Not cool, you three," he said. "Not cool."

AN: Oh my gosh, you guys, I know you're all probably tired of hearing me say this, but this chapter was honestly so difficult to write! The kiss scene was one of the earliest scenes that I came up with when I was starting this story, just like the betrayal scene where we find out that Lan Fan is in league with Henry Chu. It was one of those scenes that made me want to write this fic, and consequently, the setup for it was bloody difficult. Believe me, there were plenty of times I wanted to scrap that scene, because after going over my outline again, I've realized that there were other ways I could end this story, but none of them would involve the kiss scene in the way I imagined it.

I really hope it didn't feel forced. I tried my best to keep the characters as IC as possible, and to kiss in a way that is in character. Anyway, this entire chapter was basically a giant struggle with what I want as a writer (a kiss in the sewer where Ling and Lan Fan's roles are reversed from their first meeting) and what the story needs to play itself out.

So, one more chapter, huh? How time flies! Next chapter is all wrap-up. The loose ends will need to be tied up. I haven't visited Al, Mei and Dr. Marcoh in a while. Also, Ling's now the owner of XYZ Ltd. Hmm. And poor Grandpa Fu totally fell off the face of the earth. Poor him! He was actually supposed to be in this chapter, but I just can't make it work without making it seem totally random. We'll see what happens to Ling and Lan Fan. Ling needs to get his do-over, right?