Hi! MotherUniverse here! Yes I am working on many other stories right now but I can multitask! This has been an idea sitting in the back of my head for a while, and this document sat unfinished for even longer, so I'm finally publishing the first chapter!

This is an OC insert. The OC is a small girl of age five, who doesn't yet have a name. The plot starts between Nina and Scar, back when Ed didn't really know anything about anything, which should become clear once the story starts.

Just to keep away confusion, it starts right after Hawkeye tells Ed about Nina's death. Ed and Al go back to the hotel, and Ed decides to take a walk. In the cannon, (or close to cannon with the timeline I'm going with) Al would've gone out looking for Ed, which would've lead to the scene where the brothers are sitting under the clock tower where Scar attacks them. Instead, Ed meets my OC, and everything goes haywire. Hughes, Armstrong, and most of the military don't know about Al's body yet. And that's pretty much where the story starts.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. I do, however, own the little girl who causes all the problems in this story.

And without further ado, on with the show!

Civil War; Chapter 1

Nina. Her name continued to ring in his head, as he walked through the alleyway, unsure of where he was going. His eyes, normally burning with fire, looked dead. His limbs felt weak. The rain poured down on his head. His stumps ached with pain. He didn't care. This pain was why he was walking out here anyways. He needed to feel this pain. To remind him of his mistakes. He thought about those mistakes every day, yes, but right now, he felt the need to punish himself.

She was so sweat, so innocent. A bright ray of light on their dark path. She didn't care that Alphonse was just armor, or that Edward had automail. She didn't need to. To her, they where her lovely big brothers, who played with her and made her happy. She and her big white dog where two simple and kind souls. They didn't deserve their fate.

It was a funny thing, how the universe loved to watch him suffer. Him and his brother, they always came across hardships. They often found themselves denied food and shelter just because Edward was a state alchemist. They nearly died more than once, and they had seen people get hurt. But Nina...

She was a whole other world of pain.

He didn't know where he was walking. He needed to sit down. His limbs ached like crazy, but he kept going. Because he needed this pain. To punish himself for everything he's done. Because if he punished himself through pain, then maybe the universe will stop hurting those close to him as punishment for his sins.

That's when he saw her.

She was just a little girl, couldn't be older than five. She was running down the alleyway. She looked weak and fragile; she was nothing but skin and bones. It seemed the only thing that kept her running was pure terror. She looked frightened. She was scared for her life. Her brown hair was wet and long, falling down to her knees. She had large, baby blue eyes, that where full of pain and fear. She wore no clothes on her body; she shivered while she ran. She tripped. She fell. She pushed herself back up, stumbled limply towards the wall, and slid down, curling into a little ball. She didn't seem to notice the boy watching her.

Ed walked over to this little girl. He got on his knees in front of her, stripped himself of his red coat, and wrapped it around her bare body.

The little girl looked up at him, her baby blue eyes locking on his gold ones. She let out a small cry of fear, and stumbled away from him, trying to get up, but not finding it in herself to stand.

"Hey" Ed said calmly, walking over to her and offering her a hand. "I'm not gonna hurt you. What are you doing out here alone in the rain?"

"I'm running away." She replied. Her voice was horse, and raspy. She curled up in his coat. "Your not gonna send me back, are you?"

"Back to where?" Ed asked.

"To the blue men. And the people with snakes on them. You won't send my back to them, right?" Her voice was desperate, pleading. Full of pain and fear.

Ed didn't know what this little girl meant by 'blue men' and 'people with snakes on them', but he knew if he didn't find this girl a shelter soon, she would freeze to death.

He couldn't let another child die.

"No, I won't send you back." He told her.

She nodded, then crawled over to him, his coat wrapped around her frail body. She crawled into his lap, and snuggled into his chest, one hand gripping the coat, and another hand gripping Ed's shirt. Ed wrapped his arms around her and carried her away from the ally that she came from. It was about time they both got out of the rain.

"I can't believe you"

"I'm sorry, alright? Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"You let a child escape you. A human child! HOW COULD YOU LET IT GET AWAY!"

"It's got a strange power,"

"You've got a strange power!"

"She overpowered me, alright! But she's a kid, and she can die. She'll most likely freeze to death in the wether"

"She's not supposed to die! Our experiments with her where almost complete. If we succeeded, our plans would've been a lot easier"

"Shut up, we'll find her, ok? It's not like she's gonna ruin anything for us, so calm down!"

"You don't get it do you? How much she's seen, how much she knows? She can ruin everything! We need. Her. Found."

"Who's this?" Al questioned. He had to say, he was surprised to see Ed show up at the hotel with a little girl wrapped up in his coat.

"Not sure" Ed replied. The girl was currently sleeping. Ed took off the wet coat, carefully dried her off with a towel, and placed her in one of the beds.

"I just kinda found her on the streets," Ed explained.

"Speaking of on the streets," Al said, disappointment in his voice, "What where you doing out in the rain!? Do you know what that does to your stumps?"

"Yeah, I felt it" Ed snapped. "I just needed to go take a walk. After what we heard..."

Al sighed. They heard the news about Nina's death less than an hour ago. The two of them had gone back to the hotel, and Al stayed in the room when Ed went out, thinking Ed was simply grabbing a bite to eat from the hotel restaurant. He was seconds from going out to look for his brother.

Al repeated to his brother, "Why did you go out in the rain? You knew it was bad for your automail,"

"I was hoping the rain could wash it away." Ed explained. Al knew exactly what it was. "And as for my ports..."

"You didn't care." Al finished. "In fact, you wanted the pain, didn't you?"

"We made the mistakes, Al. Not Nina. But her life was stolen. And I don't know why,"

"It's not our faults," Al assured his older brother. "We couldn't do anything about it. We didn't do that to Nina. Actually, we did her some good,"

"What did we do that was any good for her?" Ed spat angrily.

"We were her friends. That's what we did for her,"

At that moment, a multiple panicked slams hit their door. "Edward! Alphonse!" Came the voice of one Lieutenant Colonel Hughes. "Are you two in here!?"

"Yeah, we're here" Al said, moving to open the door. As soon as he did so, a full-uniformed Lieutenant Colonel Hughes ran in, in shambles.

"Elrics, I'm glad I found you. We need to escort you back to eastern command. Their are some body guards down in the lobby, they'll help with the escorting. We've got a car to drive you in, and—" Hughes began to ramble, forgetting to tell them why he was there in the first place.

"Hughes, what's going on?" Ed asked, interrupting the ranting man.

Hughes turned to face Edward. "There's a killer in this area, and he's been targeting state alchemist. We have a feeling he might try to go after you."

Ed stood up, "what do you want us to do?"

"The military is going to escort you to Eastern Headquarters. You'll receive further instructions once your there."

"Ok," Ed responded, walking over to the little girl asleep in the bed so he could wake her up.

"Hey, kiddo. You need to get up. We're going somewhere."

The little girl sat up groggily. "Were we going?" She asked sleepily. She then leaned over into Ed's chest, and closed her eyes, falling to sleep again.

"Eastern headquarters" Ed told her, pulling her out of bed, and into his arms, wrapping some of the bed blankets around her as cover.

"Who's that?" Hughes asked.

It was then that the little girl noticed the other two people in the room. She suddenly started to panic, trying to wiggle out of Ed's arms.

"You liar! You liar!" She screamed, tears falling from her eyes. "Your a liar!" She fell out of Ed's grip and onto the floor, her blankets scattering around her.

"What's wrong?" Ed asked in concern, carefully bending down to her. She tried to stand up, and run away, only to get her feet tangled up in the blankets, and trip. Al and Hughes viewed the scene with confusion.

"You lied to me!" She cried, trying to stand up again, only to once again, slip on the sheets. "You said you wouldn't send me back to the blue men!"

"You mean the military?" Ed questioned. Why did the military have her in the first place? And why was she so frightened of them? It didn't matter right now. He just needed to calm her down. "Kiddo, that's just Mr. Hughes. He's really nice! Annoying at times, but nice,"

Hughes walked over to the kid. "Hey," He cooed gently, using the best of his fatherly voice. "It's ok, kiddo. I'm not gonna hurt you,"

"But your one of the blue men! And the blue men always hurt me!" She cried. She then got onto all fours and crawled over to a new sanctuary; behind Alphonse's leg. Al was a bit shocked that she would come to him. The girl hugged his leg tightly, as if it would keep her safe. Ed crawled over to her, Hughes following him from behind.

"Don't worry, Kiddo. Hughes is different than the blue men. He has a little daughter your age, actually. Come on, you can trust him," Ed prodded.

The girl walked forwards towards Ed. Hughes bent down besides her, extending a hand. "Hi" He said.

She carefully grabbed the hand, and when she decided that he wasn't going to hurt her, she said, "I think he's ok,"

"Good," Ed told her, "'Cause we gotta go,"

Ed clapped his hands together, and transmuted the bed sheets into a shirt and pants for the girl, then transmuted the thick bed quilt into a coat. The three men helped dress the girl (she kept getting tangled in the shirt. It was as if she had never been given clothes before), then Ed picked her up and carried her out of the room, Al and him following Hughes into the front lobby. Hughes walked a small distance from them to talk to the guards. However, there was a small problem;

"Those are a lot of blue men" The girl fretted, upon seeing the dozen soldiers in the lobby. Ed didn't think trying to re-convince her why the 'blue men' weren't dangerous was the greatest move at the moment.

"Al, open your armor up" Ed commanded, sounding tired. Al made sure he was away from military view, unstrapped his armor, and helped Ed slip the little girl inside.

"I like it in here. It's warm!" The little girl said from inside. "And there's a kitty in here!"

Al laughed sheepishly at this statement. Ed glared at his little brother, "I will talk to you about that later" He said sternly.

Hughes walked to the brother's with a few escorts, but upon seeing the missing companion, he stared at the brothers in confusion. "Where's the kid?"

"We'll tell you later" Ed said. "But she'll be coming with us,"

Hughes looked more confused than ever, but didn't say anything else. He then went to introduce Ed to the guard standing besides him. "Ed, this is Second Lieutenant Maria Ross. She, along with I, will your main escort for the time being,"

"Hello Major Elric. It's an honor to meet you," She said, extending a hand. The woman sounded stiff, and it was all Ed could do to hold back a groan. She was gonna spend the whole time sucking up to him, wasn't she?

"Just Ed is fine" Ed informed the Second Lieutenant, taking the hand shake. Great. Ed thought. I know I can trust the Lieutenant Colonel around the kid I found, but I don't know the first thing about this woman. And she seems the type who would hand the kid over to the military if she was commanded too. That's when a second thought occurred to Ed. Why is this kid so scared of the military anyways? What's she got to do with them? And she mentioned the 'people with snakes on them'... What the hell happened to her?

"Lieutenant Colonel!" Another soldier shouted to Hughes with an uptight salute. Ed was already not liking his escort team. "The military issued car's have arrived!"

"Everybody out!" Hughes commanded.

"Where are we going?" The little girl whispered from inside Al.

"Shhhh!" Al told her. The girl kept quiet afterwards.

As everybody began to head out, Hughes wondered over to the Elric brothers. "So, where is the kid?" He asked.

Ed hesitated. Hughes didn't know about the conditions behind Al's body, and while Hughes probably wouldn't sell them out, they thought it was safer just not to tell him. "She's with us," Ed told him.

"Huh?" Hughes remarked, confused, "How is she with you?"

"She just is," Ed said plainly. "Trust us"

Hughes shrugged his shoulders after a pause. "Okay, I'll trust you on that," He said cautiously, obviously suspicious.

Everybody left the hotel and found their way into the car. Sitting across from Ed and Al where Hughes and Ross. Ed eyed Ross cautiously. He didn't trust her. Not that she seemed shifty or anything; he just didn't.

"So, who are we running from?" Ed asked after the car started to drive away from their hotel.

"We don't know his name," Hughes said, "but we've taken to calling him Scar. He's been killing State Alchemist with an unknown weapon, but we've been able to identify him as a man with brown skin and a large X-shaped scar on his forehead. His body count country-wide is currently 10. He even managed to kill Old man Grand"

"The Brigadier General?!" Ed shouted in surprise. "How?!"

"That's how dangerous this man is," Hughes continued, "And that's why we needed you to get to Eastern Command as soon as possible,"

Ed simply nodded, then took to looking out the window.

He watched as the car sped past everyone, his thoughts elsewhere. His thoughts where on Nina; an innocent life that was taken, and he couldn't do anything to save her. His thoughts where on Al; his body empty and hollow, and Ed felt he was to blame. His thoughts where on the little girl they found; Where did she come from, and why did she fear the military? He eyed the people on the streets that they passed.

The woman in the pink blouse, running through the rain.

School children trying to get out of the bad weather.

A man with brown skin and an x-shaped scar on his forehead turned to the car window, looking Ed directly in the eyes. A shout got stuck in Ed's throat as the man in the window placed his hand on the ground, and alchemic sparks went flying, as the earth began to break.

Ed felt the car flip over.

He feared for his life.

Done!

So, you probably have questions. One of them might be "MotherUniverse, aren't you gonna work on your other stories?" Yes. Yes I will. I just had this document kinda sitting here for the past month, so I decided to finally do something with it.

As for other questions; ask away in the reviews. Go ahead. And leave a review in general, even if you don't have a question.

Edit: I noticed a few mistakes I made. I just fixed them now.

~MotherUniverse signing out!