Chapter 1

"Roy! Roy! Please can I see? Please?!" Iza begged as she jumped up and down at her older brother's feet.

"Fine Iza, just be careful, ok?" Roy said as he knelt down to be some what closer to the level of his little sister, pulling the shining new silver watch out of his pocket.

"Ooooh, it's so pretty! Can I have one?" asked Iza, hoping that he might have an extra one in his pocket just for his adorable 7 year old sister.

"Wish I could Izzy but you can only get one if you past the state alchemy test." Roy replied trying not to hurt her feelings. 'After all,' he thought, "What does she know about state alchemists and the army? Nothing, except that our father was one, and died in combat somewhere up North.

"Aww, not fair," pouted Iza, "I promise that I'll become one just like you, big brother!" Iza said with all the raw determination a seven year old could muster.

"That's enough Iza. We don't want to bother Roy and- Watch Out! Your popsicle almost got his uniform!" Caroline mustang said as she veered her daughter away from her son who would soon be leaving, possibly never to return.

"Its ok mom, here squirt, try this on," Roy smiled as he placed his cap on her head, only to see her face light up with excitement. Suddenly the train's whistle blew and people on the platform started making their goodbyes. As the train whistled again, Roy carefully took his hat from Iza and gave his sister a hug, then gave his mom, who started crying, a hug and turned his back on the only family he had left to go be a dog of the military.

Sun shone through the window, making it clear that it was morning. Iza put down her alchemy book and rubbed her eyes. Had she been awake all night? It was definitely dark a second ago. She listened to the noise of the market, always packed with people and animals making loud and annoying noises. Iza groaned and walked over to the window to shut out the disorganized clatter, but one particular cry soared above the others, caught her ear, and was soon taken up by everyone in the marketplace.

"The war! Its over! The war in Ishbal is over with!"

With a rush of excitement typically seen only in small children on Christmas morning, Iza ran down the stairs to tell her mother, who was always up at the crack of dawn doing what ever it was mothers did.

"Mom! Mom! Its over! He's coming back! This is the best birthday ever!"Iza danced around the room, her mother joining in the merriment from the kitchen sink where she was washing her hands. Suddenly a wave of fatigue rushed over Iza, who had had a possible four hours of sleep. With a sigh of contentment, Caroline went over to her daughter who had slumped down in the chair, and kissed her on the forehead.

"Happy birthday my eleven year old girl, that truly is the best birthday present we could ever have hoped for you to get."

"Thanks mo-" Iza yawned widely enough to split her face, and looked at her mother again, but instead of the cheerful face it had been, it was more distant and blank

"So, you didn't have a good sleep last night, dear? Hmm?" The look her mother gave her could only be described as calculating.

"Uh, no, that is, I mean, I guess I didn't, maybe, I don't know?" Iza stuttered, to tired and surprised at her mother's quickness to try formulating a plausible lie.

"You've been reading those books again, haven't you Iza Mustang?"

"Uhh…..yes," Iza finally got out, realizing there was no point trying to put one over on her mother, but she continued, hoping to make some sort of amends, "But it was only elemental stuff, nothing dangerous, you know, just wind, water, earth, and fir-"

"Stop! Iza I don't want you reading those horrid books anymore!" Caroline shouted, breaking her usually calm demeanor. Iza sat in shock as the words played over in her head

"was it something I said? Oh it was fire Roy's alchemy skill…oops" thought Iza as the two sat in silence. To break the ice, Iza stood up and hugged her mom, saying,

"Don't worry mom, he'll be back in a few days, then life will be slightly less abnormal around here." Caroline nodded and walked over to the frying pan, prepared to finish whatever she had devised as Iza's special birthday treat.

The days flew by, and as they saw soldier after soldier from the town come home, none of them Roy, they started to come face-to-face with their worst fear. That maybe Roy wasn't coming home after all. At any noise, however small, outside the house, Iza would run to the window, merely to see a dog or person walking by. Caroline was handling it much worse than Iza, sitting in her room and continuously watching the street from her window all day, forcing Iza to assume the role of mother/chore-doer around the house. Eventually, even though it killed her inside to even think it, Iza just gave up on the idea of Roy coming back home. Instead she spent every day taking care of her mother, who just sat at the window, unmoving, watching others enjoying life as she mourned the death of yet another of her alchemists.

"Mom, please, I'm begging you, eat something!" whined Iza seriously as she tried to force the soup into her mother's mouth. With a weak smile Caroline pushed the spoon away and said in a voice that sounded kind of far off, almost as if she wasn't really there.

"You know, your eyes look exactly like you father's and brother's," and with that, her already tear swollen eyes filled and she started to cry. Feeling as much pain as her mother, Iza gave her a hug, then left the room when Caroline pushed her daughter away from her.

It wasn't till dinner time that Iza tried yet again to force food upon her mother, but once again, her attempts failed. Tired, Iza went to her room and slowly got into her pajamas. Glancing towards her desk, her eyes happened to fall upon the still open alchemy books from the night before her birthday. A few words caught her eye, human transmutation. Curiosity got the better over and she walked over to the desk and took a look at what it read. With a gasp, Iza leaped from the room to go tell her mother of this new found information. Upon opening the door to her mother's room, she noticed that she was no longer in her chair. Iza blinked and looked around the room, finally finding her mother on the bathroom floor, not moving.

"Mom? Mom! No please! MOM!," Iza screamed as she shook her mother's limp shoulders. "Hold on mom, I'll be right back. Please mom, hold on!" Running down the stairs she tripped, landing on her side. She sat up cringing, ignoring the pain, and ran towards the doctor's house which luckily enough wasn't far.

Drawing the last part of the circle, Iza stood up and wiped away the beads of sweat that were collecting on her forehead.

"Ok, here it goes, all or nothing" Iza slowly placed quivering hands on the outward lines of the transmutation circle. For a moment it all seem to be going well, then, as the only way to describe it, little black hand like things started pulling on her right leg, tugging her inwards to some unknown destination.

Mrs. McGowan and her dog Scruffums were just at the end of their evening walk when an ear piercing scream sent them bolting towards the nearest bush. After a few moments, Scruffums braved a peek at the road they had so recently left. It was empty. As was the surrounding area. The woman and her dog took off for the town center, shouting for help the entire way as another head splitting scream sounded from behind her.

The town doctor found Iza almost unconscious from blood loss, writhing on the wooden floor of her living room, her right leg gone from the knee down. By the time he had it bound and under control, she had passed out. She did not wake up for eight days.

FIVE YEARS LATER

"Here you go Ms. Mustang, congratulations on passing the exam."

Iza ignored the obviously smitten major currently staring at her chest and opened the gleaming silver pocket watch with a satisfying click. Her pride and self respect made her positively glow, knowing that she had finally accomplished it, had finally lived up to the promise she made her big brother. It cheerily showed her the wrong time. Shaking her head, Iza Mustang clicked it shut, making a mental note to fix it later, despite her inner desire to throw it at the still staring major and demand a new one.

"I guess I should really be calling you Master Sergeant Mustang now. I'm sure your office will really miss the help with the paperwork." He said to her breasts. She hoped they weren't answering (?). Continuing to ignore him, she turned her chest away from him, and towards the door she soon hoped to be leaving. She had, however, taken no more than three steps when he was in front of her. Cursing her short legs, she looked up at him with what she hoped was an impassive face. He looked a little angrier than he had been a minute ago, the removal of her chest from his line of sight obviously not agreeing with him.

"Hey now, haven't you been taught to salute a superior officer before leaving a room? You could get into a lot of trouble for that up at Central."

"Thanks for the warning," she grudgingly murmured, throwing a half assed salute in his general direction before attempting to maneuver herself around him to the door that was now taunting her. As she expected but hoped against, he didn't let her.

"That's all I get for saving your ass? You could have been fired for that you know. Wouldn't you say you owe me a little more than that? You know, I could put a good word in for you with the higher ups at Central. Wouldn't you like that, hmm?" He leaned in closer to her with a leering look that seemed to be reserved for her chest. "What would you do for me, if I do that for you?"

She drew herself up to her lofty height of five foot nothing and glared at him as coldly as she could muster. Iciness pervaded the room and the man standing imposingly in front of her shivered a little, a slightly uneasy look creeping through the perverted one in his eyes. She hoped it was enough to make him back down, she was tired and definitely not in the mood for this. He seemed to regain a little of his courage at her silence and took another step forwards, his hands reaching out towards her.

Big mistake.

Without missing a beat, Iza had her hands out of her pockets and clapping together. As his hand roughly grabbed at her shoulder, she ducked in between his arms, her hands landing on his chest, palms open. There was a definite look of shock, amazement and terror in his eyes before-

BOOM

"….that's it? You turned my clothes to mud? What are you, stupid? Like that'll stop me, hey if you like it dirty, who am I to complain," He snickered at her, preparing to subdue her as she once again skipped free of his grasp at the last second, making sure not to get any of the mud on her uniform.

She tauntingly kept just out of his grasp while explaining as if to a child, "that's not just any mud, you know. Hehe, that's acidic mud. Good luck trying to get it off."

"What do you mean, acidic mu-" eyes widening he stopped chasing after her, starting instead to claw at his chest and stomach, "Ow!!! Eep! What the!! OWWW!"

Watching him with a satisfied smirk from the other side of the room was Iza.

"Yup, bet that stings," She continued, "I designed that one to cause the most pain while doing the least harm, have fun trying to put on any clothes for the next five hours. And there'll be no marks anywhere on your body by tomorrow, so if you try to tell anyone, you'll sound like an idiot." With that, she finally got to use the door that had been eluding her up until now.