Hey! Here's my contribution to Almei week 2014 day 6. The prompt is AU / Crossover.

Before you read this, I just want to let you know that in general, I am not a fan of AUs. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with AUs or people who write them, it's just a personal preference thing. One of the major attractions to most of the stories I like enough to read and write fanfiction for is usually the world of the story. So, if you feel like this is a terrible AU, you know why.

Also, just want to shout out to ClosetFMAfan, the queen of Almei. I think some of my early concepts for this story was inspired by her work. I don't think it's anything that would be considered stealing, but I still want to mention her.

Disclaimer : I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist.

AU: The Fairy Princess and the Cursed Wizard.

Princess May of the Cheery family was on a mission to find the ultimate magic.

Her race, the fairies of the eastern woods, was divided into several families, all competing for power. The more power the family had, the more protection that was granted to the family's domains, and the easier it was for the people of that family to survive. The Cheery family was one of the poorest families in the eastern woods, and its people were on the verge of starving. They had been sure their people wouldn't survive the winter, until the King of the fairies made a proclamation: whichever family found the ultimate magic would receive the most power in the eastern woods.

When she heard that, May immediately got ready to search for her people's only hope. She was already familiar with the use of magic (which, although every fairy had the capability to do, was not a very common skill) so she would both be able to protect herself and know what to do with the ultimate magic when she found it. Since she figured that if the ultimate magic was anywhere in the eastern woods it would have already been found, she decided to start her search in the West, the where magic was mostly performed by wizards. Wizards were supposed to be incredibly skilled in magic, though they were also notoriously secretive, and the most powerful were under the control of the Human King.

However, after a month of searching, May was no closer to finding the ultimate magic. She had made a few interesting friends though. There was a druid she called "Mr. Scar" since he refused to give her his real name and his most distinguishing feature was large scar on his forehead. Apparently, the druids were an ancient race that followed a strict religion and had their own brand of magic that had been exterminated by the wizards on the order of the human king. May suspected that Mr. Scar had decided to help her because h sympathized with her and her family's situation.

Another friend was a former knight who had fallen out of favor with the King named Yoki. Supposedly, he had been taking advantage of his position and was bullying the peasants for no reason other than to line his pockets. A pair of wizards had exposed his misdeeds and reported to the King, and Yoki had lost his knighthood. Now he was penniless and on the run. He wasn't May's first choice of a traveling companion, but he was did have some useful information, and he was terrified of Mr. Scar.

It was actually on some of Yoki's information that they were acting today. Supposedly, this was the Laboratory belonging to the wizards who had exposed Yoki, the Elrond brothers, who supposedly were the experts on the ultimate magic. May had heard a lot about them during her search across the West, expecially the older one Edward. He was nicknamed the Fullmetal Wizard, and was supposed to be incredibly honorable and handsome. He sounded just like a prince charming in those children's stories she used to love when she was little. Secretly, May hoped that when they met he would fall hopelessly in love with her and come riding on his white stallion to save the Cheery family. However, in order to do that, she would have to meet him, and just in case he wasn't as helpful as she hoped, she was prepared to take the information she needed.

So now here they were, fairy princess, mysterious druid, and fallen knight, about to break into a secret wizard's laboratory.

"Finally! I will get revenge for what those two wizards did to me," Yoki muttered to himself. "With this, I begin my grand plan to return to my former glory. Step one: take down those two evil wizards. Step two: regain my status as a knight..."

"Uh, Mr. Yoki?" May asked. "You do know you're talking to yourself?"

Yoki scowled. "Shut up, little girl."

May sighed and looked at the door mouse sitting on her shoulder. "You ready, Xiao-mei?"

Xiao-mei nodded. She was May's personal pet and best friend. They had been inseparable ever since May had found her sick and abandoned in the Cheery family's territory. May had nursed the mouse back to health using magic, and Xiao-mei had decided to stay with the princess.

May took a deep breath. "Alright, let's go!" She marched up to the front door and turned the doornob.

Yoki gasped. "You idiot! We're breaking in, we can't just walk in the front door!"

May looked back at her companions. "Why ever not? After all," she opened the door, "it is unlocked."

Scar walked past May and through the doorway, follow grudgingly by Yoki.

It was dark inside the Laboratory. May had good eyesight, and could just make out several tables with vials, heaters, and beakers to be used in Magical experiments. There was what appeared to be a bookcase at the far wall, presumably filled with magic books. Compared to your typical wizard's lab, it wasn't anything extraordinary.

A cat scurried across the floor, scaring Xiao-mei.

"It's alright, Xiao-mei," May whispered to her door mouse. "He probably keeps rats and other pests away from the important documents. I won't let him hurt you."

"Yeah, sure, comfort the mouse." Yoki grumbled, his knees shaking.

Suddenly, the room was filled with light and May had to squeeze her eyes shut for a few seconds. When she was able to see again, she saw that the sudden light came from sun-orbs (an expensive magical device that generates artificial sunlight) on the ceiling. There was a staircase to May's left with a landing about halfway up, and on that landing was a short, blonde man.

"What are you people doing here?" the man asked.

Yoki screamed. "Ah! It's him, the Fullmetal Wizard!"

May gasped when she heard that. "He's here? Where is Mr. Edward?"

Scar pointed at the man on the landing.

May gasped. "What? THAT little pipsqueak is the guy I've heard so much about? He isn't handsome at all!"

Edward Elrond was furious when he heard that. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A TINY LITTLE PIPSQUEAK YOU MINIATURE SHRIMP!" he shouted.

May's hands were shaking in anger. "How dare you play with the feelings of a lady!" She pulled some seeds out of her pocket and started to chant her magic spells.

Now, the magic that the fairies of the eastern woods use a type of magic almost unheard of in the West. It focuses on the natural processes of nature, and usually is used to either halt or speed up these processes. The process that is usually studied the most is the growth and decomposition of plants, and fairy magicians have learned how to influence this process. If a fairy magician has access to the right seeds, they will be able to create any weapon they need simply by growing plants the way they want.

May was very skilled in her people's magic, so by the time she was finished chanting, vines had already grown to wrap around Edward's feet, and a small tree had grown next to her in order to provide a fighting staff. May took the staff, though it looked like she had already defeated him with her vines.

However, Edward just smiled, clapped his hands together, and transformed May's vines into dust.

What? May thought, He can do spells without speaking any words?

"Now tell me what you came here for!" Edward jumped down from his place on the landing and lunged at May, but was intercepted by Scar. When he was this close, May could see that his right arm was actually made of metal. It must be one of those prosthetics she heard about, which uses a very simple kind of magic to act like a flesh limb.

"Little girl," Scar temporarily looked at May while he held the Fullmetal Wizard at bay. "Go look for the information you need. I'll hold him off."

Suddenly remembering the reason why they were there, May nodded and ran off to one of the adjoining rooms. She knew Scar would be able to fend for himself, even if the enemy was someone as powerful as Edward Elrond. Scar's druid magic focused on the deconstruction of physical objects, and although it made a difficult offense, the shorter chants made it a brilliant defense.

May found s pile of hand-written notebooks and started to look through them. Most of them looked like travel logs, but there was one filled with nothing but a series of numbers. May figured that it might be some kind of code and decided to pocket it and continue to look through the other books.

A pitch-black cat jumped on the table, scaring Xiao-mei into hiding in May's pocket. May chose to ignore it and focus on finding something useful in the Elrond brothers' handwritten notes.

"Can I help you find something?"

May screamed. Of course, she had forgotten about the other brother. He must have found her. "Where are you? I'm not doing anything wrong, just... Looking at your private notes maybe, but other than that..."

"I'm over here, you don't have to yell."

May blinked and looked in the direction of the voice, but all she saw was... the cat. "Um, are you a talking cat?" she asked.

The cat nodded. "Yep. I'm Alphonse Elrond. You've probably heard of my older brother, Edward Elrond, the Fullmetal Wizard."

"Uh, yeah." May decided not to mention that she had just attacked his older brother. "Wait, you're a talking cat. How is..."

"Well, I wasn't a cat my entire life. It's kind of a long story."

"Uh-huh." May nodded, deciding now was not the time to pry. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know anything about the ultimate magic, would you?"

Alphonse got very still and looked at May very seriously. "Don't go looking for that. Please, just don't."

"But I have to!" May shouted. She winced when she realized that she had lost her temper. "Sorry. It's just that... If I don't succeed in bringing back the ultimate magic to my homeland, everybody in my family will probably die."

Alphonse tilted his head. "Are you a fairy from the East?"

May nodded.

"My brother and I met someone else from your country named Ling."

May recognized that name and scowled. "So, the Yew family is ahead of me. What did you tell him?"

"The same thing I'm going to tell you. The ultimate magic source that my brother and I have learned about here is a dark, terrible thing worse than any other black magic. The ingredients... In order to produce just a little bit of power, you need multiple human sacrifices."

May gasped. This was worse than anything else she had encountered in her travels, and she had encountered some terrible things. Creatures that were only half-human, the extermination of an entire race, people who had no respect for the natural world. But this took the prize for most horrible thing in the West.

"I can't possibly take something made from that back to my homeland," May whispered.

Alphonse scratched his head. "If it helps, my brother and I have only looked for sources of the ultimate magic in our land. Maybe there's something in a different land far away that has a more humane source of the ultimate magic."

May's eyes lit up. "Of course! All I need to do is find a different source somewhere else. Thanks Alphonse."

The cat chuckled. "You're welcome."

May got up to go, but had a sudden thought. "Hey Alphonse, can I ask you a question."

"Ask away."

"Why did you and your brother decide to research the ultimate magic in the first place?"

Alphonse looked uncomfortable. "Well... It's because we want to find a way to get brother's limbs back and lift the curse on me."

"What?" May was interested now. "You were cursed? I guess that explains why you are a talking cat, I guess. But who cursed you?"

Alphonse winced. "Actually... brother did."

May gasped. "Was it some kind of accident?"

"Er, it was sort of a situation of last resort."

May looked Alphonse strangely, and he sighed. "You see, the story really starys with our mother's death. She was all we had, and we were heartbroken when we lost her. We were young and arrogant, so sure of our own power. So we decided to look into any chance of bringing her back, even the most forbidden of all black magics..."

May gasped. "Necromancy." Of course, the forbidden art of reviving the dead. It was rumored to be impossible, and there were dastardly consequences of even attempting it.

Alphonse nodded. "The rumors are true, it is impossible. Brother and I found that out the hard way. And as for the consequences... Every spell in black magic requires some kind of sacrifice. The larger the spell, the bigger the sacrifice needed. Even a failed attempt at Necromancy required such a large sacrifice. It took my brother's leg and my entire body. When my brother realized what had happened, he quickly used a curse intended for body-swapping to bind my soul to a cat that had gotten caught in the spell attempt and lost its life. The curse needed another sacrifice, and brother used his right arm."

May sat there, dumbfounded. She was having a hard time believing the story, but she honestly couldn't think of any other explanation that made any more sense. All she could do was sit there and try to comprehend everything that the Elrond brothers had gone through.

She could hear sobbing in the corner. May snuck towards where she heard the crying coming from and found...

"Yoki! Have you been hiding here the entire time?"

The former knight scowled. "Well, I wasn't getting involved in that freakshow with you magicians! As soon as the fighting started, I found a nice place to hide and wait it out. But that story was so touching, it makes it hard to hate you guys!"

Alphonse tilted his head. "Have we met before?"

Yoki looked appalled. "WHAT?"

May sighed. "Well, I guess we better think about leaving if we plan on searching for th ultimate magic far away." Suddenly she had a thought. "Hey Alphonse."

"Yeah?"

"What does your real body look like? Is it like your brother's?"

Alphonse looked agaughs. "No way! I'm much more handsome, and I'm really tsll since I actually drink my milk. Plus, I am much nicer and more polite than he is, and I don't loose my temper like he does!"

May's mind came up with a image of Alphonse as a prince charming, not that unlike what she had envisioned the Fullmetal Wizard to be. May rather liked what she saw.

"Alphonse, if I ever succeed in finding a humane source of the ultimate magic, I promise to come back here and help you get your body back! You can count on it."

Alphonse purred. " I'll hold you to that. I don't believe I caught your name, Miss..."

May leaned down and scratched Alphonse on the top of his head. "I'm Princess May of the Cheery family. It's nice to meet you!"

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