Hello readers,
This fic is actually somewhat special to me. It's nothing really new, just another epic of a concept that's pretty much been flaunted across the FMA fandom. However, this was the story that inspired me to start writing.
Last summer, I actually took steps to writing down my concepts and thoughts regarding anime and possible fanfics. Before that, the ideas were usually pretty tame and confined to my head. This one, however, made me want to write it down.
It started off as just a concept, but quickly grew into an epic after just 20 minutes of listening to the FMA soundtrack music one evening. I wrote down the basic skeleton of the story and started writing the first chapter after weeks of procrastination and college back in early October with my three other current fics.
While this one may be a bit predictable, I had fun writing it and I hope everyone enjoys my characters and plot.
Just so you know, this isn't a self-insert in any way. This is a new, original character I designed from my brainstorming session back in the summer.
Enjoy the story.
Sincerely,
-The Smiling Crow
Chapter 1
The kidnapper made her way through the streets of Central. She had been paid to steal the child of an important family for an organization. She found out later it was a cult obsessed with Alchemy and immortality. They believed that this one-year-old baby was the key to a successful human transmutation due to lineage.
As an "honor", she was allowed in the room to watch. In other words, they tied her to a post. From her vantage point she witnessed the robed cult members place the baby in the center of an intricate transmutation circle.
The 13 figures took their places around the circle. Then, after speaking a few words in some dead or made-up language, they pricked their fingers and allowed blood to drip on the circle. In a grand, practiced gesture, they clapped their hands and slammed them to the symbol in one motion.
She could only watch in horror as the circle suddenly went from a familiar, alchemical blue to an ominous shade of scarlet. She closed her eyes after that, but couldn't shield her ears from the screams of the members and the cries of the baby.
After five seconds of the sound of slithering and screaming, it suddenly turned to whimpers of pain and wheezing. She opened her eyes to see every one of the members on the floor moaning- and missing several parts.
"Truth…" She looked over to one of the members slowly bleeding out on the floor.
"Truth…Truth…I see it…no…" He mumbled incoherently while staring blankly at the wall. "…immortality…it's within our grasp!" His glazed look suddenly sharpened and he started crawling towards the baby in the center. "It's possible! Truth showed me! That has to be it! We just need more time! More sacrifices! It's possible! It's possible… it's possible…..it's…."
Blood seeped from his leg stump as he slowly kept crawling towards the child. The captive kidnapper struggled with her ropes and managed to slip an arm through. By the time she'd freed herself, most of the members had bled out and the rest were slowly approaching the same fate.
The entire time, the child in the center was just silent. She walked around the corpses and checked the small sacrifice. She could hear rattled breathing.
He was alive.
She picked up the small bundle and started towards the exit when there was a loud CRASH from the foyer upstairs. She figured it was the military given several voices barking orders.
She slowly made her way through the dark hallways and had just jumped off the ledge to a nearby roof. She heard the "Stop there!" a second before the gunfire. She made it across five or six rooftops before she noticed the pain in her side.
Now she was here. She'd mostly lost the soldiers, but they'd find her. She knew even they weren't stupid enough to ignore the blood trail through the alleyways of central.
It didn't matter; she'd be there in a second.
She stumbled over a loose bit of garbage as her vision went hazy, but her guilt kept her going. She'd done this to the child and it was her responsibility to ensure his safety. She knew what would happen to the kid when no one found the parents; he'd end up in the military.
She remembered her brother. They'd been orphaned and lived on the streets until they met Granny. She'd taken them in, though she couldn't adopt them. That is, until the military snatched up her brother.
He died in the Great Coup of the Eclipse.
There was no way in Hell she was going to let this kid go through that.
The alleyway was silent save for her occasional gasps and the baby's wheezes. She briefly wondered why the kid wasn't crying, but was grateful for the relative silence at the very least.
After a few blocks of stumbling through the alleys, she made it to her destination; a boarding school on the outskirts of Central. She knew Granny would still be around the old place and the kid would be in good hands there.
She reached the main house and pushed the electric buzzer on the door and wiped some blood and grime from her face. Granny told her 'Always be presentable'. She smiled wryly at the memory.
The door opened and a tall, severe-looking woman in a white nightgown and loose, gray hair glared at the late night intruders before gasping at their current states.
"Hey, Granny" The kidnapper smiled weakly. "Think I can take ya' up on that offer?"
She was immediately ushered into the parlor. It was like she remembered it, complete with the old couch and crackling fireplace.
"What happened." The older woman asked sharply. Straight to the point, as she always was.
"Don't worry about it for now. Is Fisher still around?" The old medical alchemist would be needed if the kid ended up anything like the cult members. She bled out too much to be saved, but so far the kid looked alright.
"I'll get him immediately." Granny rushed out to fetch Fisher from the Teacher's Quarters.
The kidnapper looked at the baby in her arms, silently praying for his safety. As she held the baby closer to her, she heard a crinkle in her jacket.
She pulled out the abduction research forms of the kid. It had everything about the kid down to blood type. She knew the military would give an arm and a leg if they found out the kid's name and family.
Her thoughts were broken by the sound of the foyer doors being forced open and boots rushing towards the room.
She sighed. Maybe she should've tried something to stop the blood trail. She slowly got up and made her way to the fire.
She'd just tossed in the documents when a brown-haired soldier broke down the door, rifle in hand.
"Ma'am, you're under arrest for conspiracy, kidnapping, and murder." Murder? Oh, the corpses back at the mansion. They must've assumed she did it.
She dizzily slumped towards the couch as her vision dimmed. She was vaguely aware of two more soldiers rushing in to grab the documents from the fire and stamping out the remaining flames.
"Sir, please save the kid. Something's wrong. I'm sorry." She looked up to the soldier pleadingly. Her eyelids got heavy and her voice became raspy.
"I'm sorry." It felt like that one time she stayed up really late with her brother as kids.
She smiled knowing she'd see him soon. She took one last look at the baby she'd taken.
"I'm so…sorry…Edgar…"
The medical alchemist, Roger Fisher, entered the room shortly after Colonel Matthews had pronounced the kidnapper dead.
After relaying the message she'd told him, the alchemist turned his attention to the baby. While the baby had no surface wounds, the alchemist was shocked to discover the baby was bleeding from inside his throat. He quickly used his advanced alchemy to cauterize the wound and stop the bleeding.
The baby still made those wheezy gasps in an attempt to cry, but the Colonel had other matters to deal with. He turned his attention to Lieutenant Jackson.
"What's the situation, Lt.?"
"Sir! We managed to gather a bit of evidence from the mansion as well as the documents from the fire.
"From what we've gathered, the cult was obsessed with the idea of alchemically becoming immortal. A few journals from the members say that the kid was stolen from a specific family, though it didn't say which. They believed because of the family's past, he was the key to the successful transmutation. Unfortunately, the reaction rebounded. All cult members are deceased.
"The deceased kidnapper is named Mina Roster, sister to the deceased Private Ethan Roster. No other information is available, sir. She was an outlaw and kept underground.
"We learned her name from her connection to Ms. Lucille Princeton. From Ms. Princeton's accounts, she took care of the two until military officials took away the brother. The sister ran away shortly after. Ms. Princeton is also the one who admitted the two here earlier this evening.
"The kid's name is Edgar. We don't have much information on him, though. The fire burnt most of the documents away, including most of the family information. The child had an internal injury, but cause is unknown, sir."
"Right, thank you Lt." Colonel Matthews walked off, mulling over the information. The kid's injury was most likely from the same rebound that killed the rest. He wasn't an alchemist, but he understood enough of the theories to know the kid was lucky to be alive.
He walked over to the aging medical alchemist who had just finished a more thorough examination of "Edgar".
"I'm at a loss, Colonel. I've been a medical alchemist for years and I've never seen anything quite like it. The blood came from the vocal region of the throat, or at least what's left of it."
"Sorry?"
"His vocal folds, or more commonly called vocal chords, have a few chunks completely missing. It's as though they never existed or were scooped out of his throat, but it's such a clean cut. It's unnatural.
"And that's not all. I did an alchemical scan of him and found he's missing a small bit of his brain. A small portion of his frontal lobe is completely gone, but with no lacerations or breaks in the cranium!"
"Will he be alright? Is that bit anything important?" He was mildly distressed at the doctor's relatively calm approach to telling him the kid was missing a chunk of brain!
"That's another thing," The doctor replied. "The section was very precise. It's called "Broca's Area". It's a small, but critical area of the brain that enables us to adequately form words and sentences. He'll live, but when this child grows up, he will be completely mute."
Colonel Matthews looked at the now-sleeping 1-year-old in the blanket. He couldn't imagine what would happen to this kid now, but the fact that the kid was still sleeping peacefully after this ordeal gave him hope for the kid's future.
Lt. Jackson spoke up. "We'll look into it and see if any of the noble families in the area may have any missing children fitting the description. Judging from the blonde hair, it could very well be an Armstrong, though I somehow doubt it. In the meantime, we can take care of the kid at the barracks-"
"NO!" Mrs. Princeton said firmly. "We'll take him in. We have some old rooms for a nursery and I'll personally see to it that he's cared for. I won't lose another to become one of your dogs." She gave him the glare that students came to fear. He felt the chills down his spine despite being an adult.
"We'll take him in." She said with finality and stood as tall as she could, which- given she was tall to begin with- was downright terrifying.
The Colonel agreed to the intimidating woman's demand and went back to HQ to file the report.
Weeks went by and none of the notable families in Central had any reported cases of a missing gold-eyed baby.
So this is the start of the fic. I hope you enjoy and keep reading.
For the "alchemical scan", I figured even with damaged vocal chords you'd still have some form of language. I wanted a certain kind of muteness, so Broca's area had to go (that brain anatomy is a real thing, too. Small bit of grey matter on the left side of the frontal lobe.).
Anyways, back to the "scan". I needed a way for them to know the area was gone (for you readers), but couldn't have the doctor cracking open a baby's head…*shudder*. I figured something like this could be done by "reading the energy" or something like that using alchemy… look they didn't have MRI's back then, so give me a bit of a break, here.
Anyways, enjoy the fic.
-Crow