Chapter 1

Destiria jumped out of the way of another destructive blast and then ran up close, hoping to get a slice of that damned Scar with her dual swords. She got close and swiped but once again she was too slow, Destiria couldn't catch him and she fell back to keep out of range of the blasts that Scar kept producing. Soldiers were coming now, but she wouldn't let any off them get hurt by one of Scar's blasts, especially Mustang's group, so she mentally resolved to keep him away from the soldiers, besides he wanted to pass judgment only on state alchemists, right?

With the distraction of the army arriving, Destiria had forgotten completely about Edward and Alphonse. She pivoted and looked back just in time to see Al's dismantled armor go flying across the ally. She could feel herself screaming Alphonse's name and running over to make sure that his blood seal was ok. The rest, she decided, could be dealt with later.

To her left she could hear her idiot twin brother screaming at Scar, like that would help one bit, but all Destiria could do was make sure Al was ok, because if he wasn't, she'd never forgive herself. In some non-panicking part of her brain she knew it was weird to be worried about a seven foot tall suit of armor, but that thing was still her brother.

"Dessi?" came Al's still child like voice, "Dessi, I'm ok."

That was all she needed to hear before returning to help that idiot Destiria regretfully called her brother. He and Scar were playing a deadly game of cat and mouse, but she couldn't decide who the cat was and who the mouse was. In a sudden burst, Destiria got an idea and whistled in a low pitch, and she watched fervently for Ed to signal back that he had heard me and was ready. She plunged back into the fight completely, but when ever she struck out at Scar, he would keep her at bay with those destructive blasts. As Ed and Destiria dodged another blow from Scar, she felt two fingers tap her back twice. It was the sign that Ed was finally ready for their plan to be put in motion.

Edward took point and fought head on with Scar while Destiria fell back, put her hands together and closed her eyes. She concentrated on feeling the sunlight and its heat energy. After sudden temperature drop she could feel the energy morphing into the dark substance that I specialized in and called "tamed light". Destiria opened her eyes and pulled her hands apart, bringing with them the tamed light. She whistled once, high and shrill, hoping that it would be enough warning for Ed to move out of the way.

Unfortunately, Destiria was so focused on her light taming that she didn't see Edward's arm get smashed to pieces by Scar. So she was completely unaware of the fact that her brother would have died had she waited another second.

She curled her hand into a fist in order to use the tamed light like a whip made of mist, most definitely there, but hard to notice if you aren't looking for it. A flick of her wrist and the tamed light coiled around Scar's leg, knocking him off of his feet, but Scar quickly rolled to his feet and shot a destructive blast right at me. Quick as lightning Destiria spread her right hand in order to form a wall of tamed light; Scar's blast shattered the wall and sent her flying backward into the adjacent building. Helplessly, she could feel herself peeling from the wall and falling to the ground. The girl hit the ground with her right leg curled under her in an awkward position so that the auto-mail made a sickening noise as it driven into the concrete. Scar walked over to her and with out a word tried to grab her so that he could do that disgusting "explode from the inside" thing that he had done to Nina. Destiria put her left arm up to shield myself and a shock wave jolted through her body as Scar's hand touched her arm. It was as if she could feel every bolt, nut, and screw in her arm, tearing itself away from the metal sheets it held together. Scar looked amazed at the fact that the young alchemist he had just tried to kill was still alive even though her left arm quite literally fell to the ground in a heap of scrap metal.

"So you have challenged God and failed as well," Scar said with no emotion in his voice, "Here and now you shall receive judgment for your sins."

It was about this time that Destiria's cold hand touched Edward, who she had managed to back into as she scrambled away from Scar. Destiria looked up into Edward's face and saw anger and hate twisting across his usually intense but still young and innocent face. It was a horrible pained face that had was unaccustomed to the expression of hate. Edward looked at Destiria, but if he noticed her look of exasperation, he didn't let on.

Edward leaned down and whispered in Destiria's ear, "Don't you dare do anything stupid to try and stop me, I'm doing this for your own good," she opened her eyes, unbelieving; to stare at her brother but his face was unreadable. But Destiria figured out what Edward had meant soon enough as he pushed her behind himself and looked at Scar with a challenging face.

"You came for judgment today, so judge me, but leave my sister and brother alone."
"Your sister Destiria is a state alchemist, she must be judged as well. But your brother will be sparred so long as he does not interfere."
"No God damn it! Leave her alone. Leave them both alone. At least let her get away for today. You can kill me if you let my siblings escape."
"Shut up Edward! What are you saying?" Destiria yelled as Al protested from somewhere behind her.

Destiria turned around to seek the help on the army, to find Lt. Hawkeye who was taking aim from behind her. She knew it would give Hawkeye away but Destiria wanted to at least give a target for Hawkeye to hit.
"The arm!" she yelled, "The right arm!"

And before Destiria could think another thought, four bullets were fired into the air. Two bullets flew off target and missed Scar completely, one bullet chipped a piece off of Scar's sunglasses and one hit him in the right shoulder. That was enough to stop Scar in his tracks. Destiria watched the army swarm in to surround Scar, and made sure both her brothers were safe before suddenly feeling like the entire world started spinning. The concrete rushed up to meet her face, somewhere far away, people were shouting her name.

I was ten years old again, Edward and Alphonse and Mom were all there. It started with Ed and I were fighting again, it was always a contest about who was the better alchemist. One would always try to out do the other. Today it was the best at transmuting figurines from our glass marbles. Ed drew a complex circle around his marbles, put both hands on the circle and with a flash of blue light, there was suddenly a glass carousal horse with hints of blue, green, yellow, and red spread through the inside of the horse. I smiled, knowing that I could top that, and set to work drawing my transmutation circle. A flash of purple light and I had produce a bouquet of roses, each with concentrated colors in the delicate petals. We both knew what came next, we scooped up our creations and ran to find mom. She came out of the kitchen to see us, her eyes widened at what we held. She smiled when we asked her whose creation was better, and she told us that both of our creations were amazing just like she always did.

Her smile, her laugh, her beautiful face, they were all perfect in our eyes. She was everything to us, from the meals that she cooked during the day, to the nights when she would hold us. I could feel her chestnut brown hair tumbling over my sandy blonde hair that refused to ever keep itself under control. I could see her leaning down to hug me, but suddenly the dream changed into something horrible...

All I could see is our mistake, our transmuted mother, lying there in a pool of blood. I remembered the pain exploding through out my body and blossoming in my right leg. I heard my twin cussing and crying, I saw his left leg missing. I looked for Alphonse but I knew that he was gone, taking by that monster that called himself the Truth. And I woke up...

Edward was sitting on the edge of my bed with his head wrapped, staring at the ground. I attempted to sit up but groaned audibly as a stabbing pain stabbed my ribs. Ed looked down at me with a tired expression.

"Oh, you're finally awake."
"What happened?"
"Well, you broke two ribs, got a serious concussion, and smashed your auto-mail leg. As well as got your arm ripped off like me," Ed said flatly.
"Ok, that was not exactly the answer I was looking for, but that will work for me. Where's-"
"Alphonse? Outside talking to Armstrong."
"Ugh- Cause that's exactly who I want to see."
"Ha ha ya, You sleep really loud, do you know that? You talk and move around in your sleep. What were you dreaming about?"

Destiria had remembered her dream perfectly but wasn't in the mood to talk about it, so she shrugged her shoulders and kept her mouth shut. Ed laid across the end of her bed, fine with the silence. It was like that for about ten minutes, an easy silence between them. Nothing needed to be said, they just knew how the other person felt, like twin telepathy. But all good things must end she supposed because ten minutes later the door burst open with such force that it slammed against the wall with a sickening crack and left a gash in the wall's paint. Destiria sighed for she knew what was coming, and there was no escape.
"Destiria! Oh you poor darling, you are finally awake!" crooned Major Armstrong.

Ed leaped off the bed and was leaning against the wall where Destiria shot him what she hoped was a murderous glance, but she couldn't do much else because Major Armstrong was hugging her hard enough to knock the wind out of her lungs and make her eyes feel as if they were being squeezed out of her head. Al stood in the doorway looking as sorry and abashed as a suit of armor could look.
"Um- ya… Major Armstrong could you let go of me… I'm not breathing."
"Oh Destiria, your leg and arm of metal have been reduced to nothing! We must go get that fixed as soon as possible!"
"Um- sure, Ed, have you contacted our mechanic?"
"And get hit through the phone with a wrench! I don't think so."
"Hit through the phone with a wrench, really Ed? Let's be practical for five minutes, shall we? Fine if you're going to be a child, I'll call her."

Destiria pulled herself up into a sitting position, then quickly pulled herself around and hopped out of bed. And, fell on her face. Destiria whipped her head around to look at her legs with a what the hell expression and looked at her right leg as if noticing its absence for the first time. She touched her leg where the skin and a thin ring of metal met and then ended abruptly. Tears filled the corners of her eyes, which she closed tightly.
"Please leave."
"What?" Armstrong and Edward said in unison.
"I said leave," Destiria said through clenched jaw.

Armstrong left like he had been asked but Ed moved to stand behind Destiria, sinking to the floor. He put his one arm, the left one, on her shoulder. After a moment Destiria turned her face into Edward's shoulder and cried silently, her back shaking gently. After the tears had subsided, Destiria looked at Edward and quietly asked,

"Why would you do something like that Ed?"
Edward, realizing immediately what she was talking about, looked up at the ceiling and sighed, "I couldn't let him kill you, either of you. I couldn't live with myself if you got killed, hell, I could barely live seeing you passed out on the ground."
"Edward," Destiria said with a new intensity in her voice, "we need to keep living so we can find a way to get Al's body back, you got that? I can't do that alone."
"You still have Al, and if it would have helped you to escape, I would have-"
"Are you listening to me? If someone killed you I have no idea what would happen to me, I'd be so angry that I would hunt that person down and make them wish they could be killed," Destiria's voice changed and became wobbly, tears gathered in her eyes again," Ed, I'm only half a person without you."

Tears slid down Destiria's cheeks and the Elric twins held each other even tighter. They held their embrace for what seemed like forever, each drawing on each other's strength to keep moving. It was a sad picture, a pair of twins holding each other with only one arm each, tears sliding their faces. They looked so much younger and more vulnerable sitting on the floor in a hospital room, but also they looked untouchable, like each twin would fight to the death for the other. The moment was broken up by a nurse with short brown hair and a confident smile, entering the room.

"It's time for the Elrics to go to bed," she announced then seeing us she blushed, "Um, my I disturbing something?"
Edward laughed looking embarrassed," Not at all, I was just helping Destiria up.

The nurse raised her eyebrows but said nothing. Edward got to his feet, wrapped his arm around Destiria and lifted her to her one foot and she hopped up on to the bed. Edward followed the nurse out of the room, but turned to look at Destiria who was staring at the ceiling with her arms behind her head. The lights turned off and Destiria fell asleep quickly hoping sleep would heal her ribs faster so that her and her brother could get their auto-mail fixed. She dreamed again…

I remembered sitting in the house at night after Mom died. I always missed Mom more at night after Ed and Al had gone to sleep. The nights when it rained were always the worst, flashes of lightning would turn all of the objects in the room that I had looked at for years into monsters, grotesque monsters that came for me in the flashes of light. That's why I started reading at night, I would read until I feel asleep uncontrollably.

After I started reading at night, I started to soak up information even more quickly than my brothers. I would become so immersed in the theories and laws of alchemy that I could literally see the knowledge spread out beneath my eyelids, my brain became a working encyclopedia of alchemy. Then one night I read s theory about transmuting light into a dark substance, but it had an extremely complex transmutation circle and I forgot all about it the next morning. I awoke the next day…

It took a minute for Destiria to realize that she was still in the hospital room. The moon was still up, holding onto that peaceful hour before dawn broke. She closed her eyes again but was unable to fall asleep. Destiria didn't feel alone in the room even though she couldn't hear any breathing or moving, so as a test she called out softly.

"Alphonse?" she asked with out opening her eyes.
"Wha-? How'd you-? But you never opened-," Alphonse responded, all of this words and sentences running together. Destiria smirked, still not looking at Al.
"I just knew, who else would sit in my room all night."

There was a pause. A long pause. Alphonse looked down at Destiria who had fallen asleep again. But this time her face was smooth and serine instead of creased and worried. Al got up and walked out her room and into Ed's, acting as the silent, never sleeping guardian of his older siblings.