Chapter One: "Legend of a Cowgirl" – Imani Coppola

She was the survivor, the only one she knew of at least. She was battling her brother, because when she came back from a simple C-rank mission she found her family dead. It was simple enough really; he dealt with her by sending her into an alternate dimension of freaks. Fabulous… who doesn't want to be in a place with alchemy freaks? Granted they probably thought she was strange, but she didn't care.

So instead of caring, she passed her way their military ranks, solely because she was a mixture of bored and needed to hit things on a semi-regular basis. She was just moved to Central, when she got promoted to Second Lieutenant. Great, she had finally settled down in the West and now was sent to the heart of the government. Her commanding officer now was some Colonel Mustang, whatever.

Sighing she got off the train and headed for the Central headquarters. She had tried to look her best, with her long, dark hair smoothed out and her uniform pressed, but she couldn't shake an ominous feeling she had in her gut. For some reason, she felt life was going to get worse.

She walked through the halls of Central headquarters, garnering many stares from the male staff and some raised eyebrows from the female staff. She noticed over the years that she had this effect on people. It was her fault, what could she do about men desiring her? She never felt the need to be with anyone in particular; maybe she was too independent or didn't care. Sometimes it seemed like a mixture of the two.

She felt like the doors were endless and that she might never reach her destination, when she heard a loud bang from a door. Shouting ensued, between a superior and his subordinate. At least I don't have to go there, she thought to herself, but that is when she noticed the door number. It matched the one on her transfer sheet, crap was all she could think of. Great I've got a bunch of immature officers to deal with fantastic…

She cracked the door open, and then slowly opened it up. "YOU'VE GOT TO LISTEN TO ME! YOU CAN'T JUST GO RUNNING AROUND!" yelled a dark-haired man behind the desk.

"WHY THE HELL NOT?"

"Excuse me, sirs, but I'm here to see a Colonel Roy Mustang," she said interrupting the shouting match by punching the subordinate underneath his ribs. He backed up a second.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"I felt like it," she said. His jaw dropped, she had moved with such speed to catch him off guard like that. "Colonel Mustang, I presume. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Second Lieutenant Song Uchiha. It's an honor."

It had been several days since Song arrived in Central and met up with Mustang's staff. She was replacing Havoc, a man who had to be transferred for newly established marital relationships. Basically his girl lived in East City, and they couldn't be apart. Everything had been going smoothly, until one day when Mustang came in with a grin on his face. "Song, I have a proposal for you." She raised one eyebrow in suspicion.

"What you planning?" asked Hawkeye. Song and Hawkeye got along quite well since she arrived. Their similar personalities meshed well, except that Hawkeye was more tight-laced than herself, who had a tendency to break protocol and destroy property during a fight.

"Ed needs a new partner. Al's still adjusting to having a body, and someone has to keep him under control. According to your records, Uchiha, you're also quite…well…special."

Song reached up and grabbed her file, what the crap did this thing say? "Nervous, kid? Only nineteen, a Lieutenant, have very convenient medical skills, and can blow fireballs and create scythes made of wind. Explain, Uchiha," he said with a tone of authority.

"Did that just come?" she asked and he replied in the positive. "Okay well, I'm a...well…a shinobi or you might say ninja. I'm from the land of shinobis, where my art is commonly practiced. I mold my life and spirit energy or chakra and release in offensive or defensive manners. I was good at what I did, but that didn't change anything. My brother sent me here, because he wanted to be rid of me. Honestly, I'm not at all bothered by it really. They hated me anyway, I was a freak among my fellow shinobi, so maybe being here is for the better!" She shouted that last part, "Who wants to live in a place where everybody views you as a freak, it wasn't my fault, not my fault!" she shouted and fled out the door. Why did she have to lose it like that, what was she thinking? Nothing, she thought those details would never reach her new superiors, and even if they did they proved beneficial for this military. However, this Mustang did not seem happy with it. Why did she have to call herself a freak? Just because she felt that way, didn't mean it had to come out.

You're losing control. Just give in to the hate inside of you. Your parents gave you my power against your will. They wanted more power, by having me in their clan. Sacrificing your sense of normalcy for power. I can make it go away. Just give in to your hate.

SHUT UP, she told the mark on her shoulder as if . She returned to the office with all the calmness she could muster, "I'm sorry, I just got a little flustered, that's all." Their faces held a look of disbelief, was this the same girl? "Once again, I'm a little stressed. Yes, I'm a shinobi, and no it doesn't impede upon my abilities to work for you all. I'm competent, I was just waiting for a better time to explain all of this to you. I didn't think it would show up on my report that's all. Anyway, you want me to serve as Ed's partner, right?"

"Yes, he'll be going to investigate some disturbances in the East that are alchemically based. The target is an alchemist with a vendetta."

"For the attacks in Ishval," noticing Mustang's shocked face, "Yeah, I know. I have been in the military for two years, I've heard stories about Ishval. Just because of that incident doesn't justifying rampaging."

"That's not all, kid. He's working a group with an equal vendetta known for capturing military members, whether they were involved. Not all in the group are alchemists, but this Roger Buren is your target. He's been killing residents of the town of Homsfield. The victims all have severely damaged hearts, and we don't yet know why."

"Why not take all members of the group, it makes sense," she suggested. It made sense the most gain for the region.

"Sorry, even with your reported destructive tendencies," she sent a death glare in his direction, "And Ed couldn't take out all ten members on your own."

Song raised her eyebrow, viewing this mission as a challenge. She knew for a fact, she could easily take out nine civilians and one alchemists on her own, but she did not want come off as arrogant to her superiors. "Fine, Colonel, we leave tomorrow. I'm assuming Ed's been briefed on this mission?" she asked her officer.

"Of course Lieutenant Uchiha, he'll meet you at the train station at seven in the morning. That is all, please go prepare yourself." She turned on her heels exiting the room. Walking down the halls of Central Command was peaceful, because most people were in their offices or meetings. The halls were quiet. Song took her time to plan things out, but unfortunately there were so many unknown variables. The file contained nothing on Roger Buren's fighting style, what their ultimate goal was, and on top of that she did not know Ed's fighting style. She despised fighting blind, but she had to survive this mission to gain her superior's trust hopefully.

o Line Break *o*

Song sat in the train station. She had opted to not wear her military uniform one because these guys had an MO of capturing uniforms, two it was summer and wool was hot. Song then wore a white tank top and black shorts. She wore her long, dark hair in a ponytail secured with a hairpiece designed after her clan's symbol, and her blunt bangs hanging straight on her forehead. She wore knee-high black boots, with no heel because they were so impractical. These boots reminded her of her boots she wore back in Konoha, and she was instantly drawn to them. She appeared like any nineteen year-old at a train station, and that was her goal. "Song!" she heard her name shouted across the station, then she saw Mustang and the young Edward walking beside him.

"Good morning, Lieutenant Uchiha. Are you ready?"

"Of course, Colonel. We'll be back before you know it and I'll try to keep the damage to a minimum," Song responded, who sounded surprisingly chipper for this hour.

"Let's have no collateral damage, Lieutenant."

"Ed, is he always this boring? What's up his ass?" she asked Edward. He gave her a slight smirk at this.

"Colonel Bastard always got something up there."

"He's ruining my fun, and besides it's not my fault that the buildings aren't fireproof." This comment got a raised eyebrow from Ed, for he was not at the meeting where Song explained who she was. "I'll explain on the train, Ed," she said with a wink. Ed was very confused at this point.

"We should board." The two boarded and took to their seats. The train was not very full, being such an early departure time. Song positioned herself in front of Edward, and began to rummage through her bags. Song began to take inventory of what supplies she had with her. She pulled out a set of ten kunai, five shuriken (damn she thought), a small med kit that she had designed herself, and her favorite weapon, the double-headed kusarigama. Regular kusarigama had one head in the shape of a scythe and a weighted end. Hers consisted of two scythes and a chain in between. She chose this as her preferred weapon many years ago and was considered when she became a chuunin the master of kusarigama. "Did you need to bring your armory?"

"Oh this? This is nothing, I'm actually running low on shuriken," she said picking up one, "And their starting to dull so I thought some time sharpening them, if you don't mind." Ed shook his head, mostly because he noticed her bag as empty and there was no sharpening instrument to be found. Song then straightened her back and quickly made several signs with her hands, "Wind Style: Wind Sharpener." Between her right thumb and pointer finger miniature hurricanes formed the size of a coin. She then picked up a kunai and ran her fingers along its edge to sharpen the blade.

"May I ask how that works?"

"Okay. It's pretty simple the wind I summoned is used to grind the edges into…"

"Not that, but how did the wind get there in the first place."

"Oh that, sorry. I used my chakra, or energy. Every human has chakra, and when one channels it into attacks or defenses. Most people have a dominant nature, or form in which their chakra takes. Mine is fire, everyone in my family has fire as their dominant nature. Then over time one can master other natures that are less dominant. I also have control over wind and lightening natures. The remaining natures are water and earth. One can also release solid chakra that does not have a nature, but rather a shape. One molds the chakra to take on a shape, like a sphere, or they use it to strengthen weapons. A kunai or katana strengthened by charka is ten times stronger than if its not chakra enhanced. However, one could logically combine change in chakra nature and change in form, it's never been done. There are also attacks that don't require change in nature or form, but are clan specialties or blood-line limits. Does this make any sense?" she asked, "Because that was the shortest description I have ever given."

"I guess if I saw it in action it would make more sense."

"Don't worry, you will," Song said with a smirk.

"One more question," Ed asked as Song continued to sharpen her blades.

"Shoot."

"Why are you in Amestris? I mean this stuff doesn't exist here, and so I know you're not Amestrian…"

"I was banished when I was twelve. I had come home to find my entire clan dead, all killed my elder brother, Itachi Uchiha. I confronted him, and using a transportation technique he sent me here. I mean at least he didn't kill me, though what has always troubled me is that I wasn't able to find my younger brother. I hope he was shown the same mercy, but I'm not sure what happened. Maybe he thinks I'm dead or he's dead. The unknown is killing me as you might imagine. My hope is that eventually I will know what happened. So for the past seven years I've been practicing different types of transportation jutsus, but I can't get it so that I can transport myself across dimensions like Itachi did," she said picking up another kunai, "Which reminds me, here," she handed a kunai that was different than the rest of the kunai she had been working with, the handle was longer with three prongs instead of single diamond blade. "This is a summoning kunai. If you ever get separated from me, I can find you right away, but it only works one way. If you always have it on your person, I can quickly find you. It's useful on team missions. After all I'm now a transportation master, except for inter-dimensional stuff."

The rest of train ride was in complete silence. Edward was trying to process this person sitting in front of him. She had been through a lot, and he believed there to be more that she hadn't revealed yet. Her suffering was great, he could see in her eyes and the speed at which she told her story. Song obviously did not like discussing her past, it still seemed to bring her pain. Could he really blame her? What twelve year-old girl would want to seem her entire family slaughtered by their own brother. Traumatizing was an understatement. This girl was strong, and that's what this mission required.