1Chapter 1- London 1945

(Edited by Lady of the Void)

Life has been bad for Troy Evans ever since the death of his father. He and his father lived in an apartment together, but now he lives only with his father's memories. Troy is an 18-year-old boy with blonde hair and brown eyes. Troy never knew his mother; he was told that she was a great mechanic who disappeared soon after Troy was born. Troy's father always told him that he would care for Troy no matter what and for as long as he lived. Now the time had come for Troy to survive without his father. Troy's next-door neighbor and best friend is Lila Lavinia. Lila is 17 years old and has black hair and brown eyes. She was orphaned when she was little and was adopted by Troy's father. The two of them grew up together and shared a special connection. They always told each other what was on their mind and never kept secrets from one another.

Troy returned home from school one day to find his apartment empty. His father was always home before Troy and Lila, so when he wasn't there Troy began to panic. Lila followed in and tried to comfort Troy as he laid down on the floor. She was always the only one who could calm him down. Their next-door neighbor Henrietta gave Troy the news. His father died in an automobile accident and didn't even make it work in the morning. Troy slowly walked upstairs into his room. He became very distraught and didn't respond to Lila as she was yelling at him. After closing the door he slowly crawled into his bed and cried himself to sleep. Lila looked in and decided to let him be alone.

The next day, Lila was helping Troy move everything around so he could put his fathers memories to rest. "Are you sure you want to do this? Maybe you shouldn't be so hasty as to move all of your father's belongings," Lila asked.

"I just want to know more about my dad, like where did my family go and what was this top secret research he was doing at the university?" Troy responded.

"You probably wont ever find out because your dad was on a solo project, so no one knew what his research was even about. It was something scientific, after all he was a scientist," explained Lila.

Lila tripped on the edge of the coffee table, and the large box she was carrying went flying. The ceramic box that was on top of the table flew to the floor and shattered. Lila looked up and troy slowly and said "Oh, I'm so sorry Troy, it's in a million pieces." Lila apologized, but Troy interrupted "Your such a klutz, but there's nothing you can do about it now, just pick it up and throw it away. My dad said nothing was in there anyways... just an empty box."

Lila picked up the broken box and looked closely at the pieces. "Look. There seems to be 3 numbers engraved on it. 3, 10, 10. Maybe it's some sort of combination? Didn't your dad have a safe in his room somewhere?"

Troy and Lila quickly ran upstairs and turned to the bedroom on the end of the corridor. Troy pushed back the large bookcase on the left wall to reveal a safe. He entered the numbers and slowly opened the safe with anticipation. Before Troy could process what was in the safe, Lila grabbed the only thing inside, a book labeled "Alchemy". "What's this? A magic book? Some sort of fiction novel?"

Troy opened the inside and turned to Lila "It's a handwritten book. It's my dad's writing, but what is it?" After skimming through the pages Troy noticed something odd. "This seems to be a book about Alchemy."

Lila replied "Oh really? I thought it was a cook book."

Troy thought about what he said and corrected himself. "Alchemy is the science of understanding the structure of matter, breaking it down and then reconstructing it into something else. According to this book, we can turn something like metal into gold, or sand into cloth. All we have to do is draw this circle, place the object in the middle and place our hands on it."

"Come on Troy, that's hokey and you know it. It's a magic book and not a very good one at that." Troy ignored what Lila was saying as he drew a circle on the wood floor with a piece of chalk he found on his dad's desk, then placed the broken box pieces in the middle.

"It's called a transmutation circle," answered Troy firmly.

Lila, in disbelief, responded "Watch, I'll put my hands on this circle thing and nothing will happen." Lila got down on her knees and placed her ands the outer edges of the circle. A yellow light began to glow and the ceramic box was put back into its original state.

Lila screamed and ran towards the door. Troy looked at the box in disbelief "It worked... I cant believe it worked!"

Lila looked up at Troy and said, "I touched the circle and it glowed... that's all I know".

Meanwhile in Amestris…

Führer Roy Mustang is sitting down at his desk, playing with a pair of paper clips. He buzzes his secretary and a very prompt Riza walks through the door, wheeling a cart of paperwork. She salutes the Führer and says, "These are today's files, sir."

Roy took one look at them, pulled his white gloves out of his pocket, put them on, and snapped his fingers. Roy looked directly at Riza, and then said, "I'm impressed Hawkeye, you didn't even flinch."

Riza responded "Please sir, you haven't been able to perform alchemy in 9 years. I know that alchemy can no longer be done."

Roy put his gloves back into the drawer, stood up and advanced towards Riza " You look very sexy in that miniskirt...why don't you close the door?"

Riza blushed ten shades of scarlet. "Oh Roy, you're so bad," Riza said in a low voice. "We can't do it here, just wait until we get home." She rolled her eyes. "You're so naughty."

"Playing hard to get still? Fine then, give me the file on the Rebirth Alchemist. Perhaps he has some new findings for his review next week". Riza bent over and placed the file on Roy's desk.

"Hmmm, it seems he has new findings on what happened 9 years ago. I wonder what that could be. Hawkeye, please call in Brigadier General Hughes. He might be able to locate the Rebirth Alchemist," Riza saluted Mustang and replied "Yes sir, I will call him in at once."