Hello, and welcome to Empty Shells! I appreciate all critiques and reviews, and must post me disclaimer now (clears throat): I do not own FMA. If I did, you would know, because the drawings would look like they were done by an ADD monkey. The only things I own are my OCs.
Warning: This first chapter contains only OCs, but Ed and Al will show up in Chapter Two, I promise!
On with the story!
We were doomed since we first set out on this mission. We were cursed since the day our fathers told us that it was alright to be curious. Perhaps if they had told us not to question the ways of the world, we would not be the monster we were now, doomed to walk the earth as unnatural creatures.
A year before….
"Irene, could you help me in the kitchen for a bit?" I looked up from where I was reading, smiling at Miss. Suzette.
"Sure thing; let me put this up and I'll help. Do you want me to get Harrison too?" Harrison, my best friend and near brother was in the scientific section, studying whatever he was interested in this week. He probably wouldn't come out unless I dragged him; he tended to forget about the basic necessities like eating when he was engrossed in research.
"Yes, I didn't see him at breakfast or lunch. He has a meeting with a family tomorrow too! Tell him to wear his nice starched shirt and black slacks, alright sweetie?" I nodded, walking to the science section of the small library. Harrison looked like a madman, piles of thick books and papers haphazardly scattered around the table he was working at.
"Harrison, Miss. Suzette wants us. You can read later." He looked up sharply, the action making his overlarge glasses slide own his nose a bit.
"Are you joking? I could create the next form of alchemy if I studied enough. There's a pattern in here somewhere, and I'm going to find it!" He cussed a blue streak as his glasses fell off, and he felt around for them on the desk. "Damn oculists! If it was up to me, I'd build my own frames, but the stupid orphanage with their stupid safety rules won't let me use a wielder! Honestly, we're sixteen, we won't kill ourselves! And what's with the families attempting to adopt me? They all want to "see me in action,"" he air-quoted. "I'm smart, but I'm not as smart as you! Irene, if you'd just show them, you'd be set for a life! All you have to do is go to a teacher in class and talk to them about your theory of light alchemy! If you showed them, you'd be out of this place!" He was going off onto one of his science rants again, which involved lots of arm-waving and talking about me. I hated them.
"Harrison, you know that I didn't create that theory, WE did. You were an integral part of it, just like how WE have stuck together ever since I got here." I stood, signaling that this discussion was over. "Let's go and help Miss. Suzette, she's making dinner."
"Is it meatloaf night?"
"Yes, why?"
"…I have come to the conclusion that that isn't meat that's brown or carrots that's orange. It's the other way around."
I gagged. After seven years of eating that stuff, now he tells me!? "What's the green bits?"
He paused, and I could almost see his brain churning out a conclusion. "Because I consider myself your friend, I have decided not to tell you." Oh. My. Alchemy. I felt my stomach turn with the thought of eating the meatloaf, and Harrison grabbed my arm, dragging me to the kitchen, muttering about how girls were so queasy.
"Harrison, a retired alchemist and his wife are coming to visit tomorrow, and they requested you especially! Isn't that nice?" Miss. Suzette sat at the head of the long table, with benches on either side of her. The youngest kids sat the farthest away from her, until it ended with me and Harrison on to the right and left of her. There weren't any other kids our age here, so I was next to a seven-year-old and Harrison was next to a ten-year-old. Miss. Suzette had assured us that someone wanted us, but I'd watched for seven years, and I knew that it was too late for us. We'd reached the age of scary teenager-hood, and adults would stay as far away from us as humanly possible unless they wanted trouble. We'd wait out our days sitting here until our eighteenth birthdays. "And Irene, I was down at the bakers yesterday and Mrs. Williams, the baker's wife, told me that she might want a hand down at the shop, or she could introduce you to a nice man, maybe a government official or a military man. That way, you could live happily."
"So you're saying that you want to marry Irene off to some military… mongrel? She's sixteen; she can very well live without marrying the first man who can afford to keep her!" Harrison glared at Miss. Suzette with venom in his glare. "And furthermore, I refuse to meet another man who'd just keep me as a curiosity he found while traveling! I'm a person, not a pet monkey who learned a few tricks!" He stood, causing the usually rambunctious table to still. "I'm going to my lab, and if anyone interrupts me, I shall flay their skin off with a butter knife!" He stalked of, and Miss. Suzette stood as if to follow him, but sat down, shaking her head. I quietly stood, following after him. I climbed the creaky old stairs to the water-damaged hall that held the boy's rooms. Harrison's room was the one on the corner, and was the smallest, but he got it to himself. I opened the door without preamble, and a small puff of green smoke exited the room. "Ire, get out. I'm not in the mood to be optimistic." Harrison had on goggles and was pouring a purple liquid into an orange one, producing a red liquid that gave off the green smoke.
"I'm not either." I sat down on his bed, the only part of the room that wasn't completely covered in experiments or notes. "I wanted to talk about your stupid idea of trying to resurrect the dead." He'd found it last year, and was trying to convince me to help him figure it out. "It's doable, I'm sure."
"How do you know?" He adjusted a wire above the beaker, not even looking at me. "You told me it was the worst idea I've ever come up with."
I knew that if I told him I'd never stopped thinking about it he'd never let me live it down. But ever since he suggested it, I couldn't help but think of it. The idea of seeing someone who's been dead was so enticing, so tempting. And he even told me that we could bring back the third person in our trio. The person who brought us together and who we loved like a brother: Xavier. I missed him so much it hurt to think of him as dead. I'd even started calculations on how much of each element we needed. There was no turning back now. "I'm in. It might be the worst idea you've come up with, but it was your idea. Your ideas aren't ever wrong."
He smiled, and turned towards me. "Just watch. With our talents, we will be the first alchemists the world that successfully perform a human transmutation (that I know of)." I imagined Xavier alive again, well again, whole again! "We start tonight." I hoped that Harrison knew more about this than I did, or else we'd be in serious trouble.
That's it! Review now, or Harrison will force-feed you meatloaf! (I swear that's like the meatloaf in my cafeteria, thank goodness I'm a veggie) Later for now!