Here's chapter one! I hope you enjoy it and leave a review afterwards! Thank you for an awesome title!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or the scenes that I have taken from Mulan! Title was given by :)

"Sydney, sweetheart are you up yet?" her mother asks through her bedroom's wooden door.

Sydney grunts and pulls her thin hand stitched blanket tightly around her to get some warmth on the cold, winter early morning. She pries her eyes open and looks through her small window to find that the stars and the moons still out.

"Yes mother," she says and pushes herself to her feet. She runs her hands down the skirt of her khaki nightgown and pushes it back against her body. "I am heading to bathe and wash up right now."

"Ok darling, wash extra hard! Remember what day it is?"

It's my birthday, she wants to say. "It's Titling Day."

"Right you are dear now go before your father hears you talking."

With that twelve year old Sydney makes her way towards the small bathroom and closes the door behind her. She walks over to the sink and looks at the small mirror to come face to face with a pale faced young girl. Today is her birthday, the day normal humans celebrate with gifts and cake but for Sydney, the daughter of a well-known and powerful Alchemist, her twelfth birthday is a little different from the usual no happy birthday wishing and the no cake or presents routine. It's the day she goes to the Master Alchemist who sees whether she is worthy of being Titled as an Alchemist and getting her Golden Lily inked.

Sydney has gotten her tattoo two years ago when she was ten but to be inked, she must pass the test with Donna Stanton. Donna Stanton is inked with a special ink that only the Master Alchemist can be inked with. Her Golden Lily's ink contains a potion of sorts that lets her see more than a normal human can. She can read palms and tell how the Alchemist will turn out to be in the future years which in return, lets her determine the worthiness of the one who wants to be inked and titled.

Sydney turns the tap on and splashes her face with the chilly water. Why is she so tense? She has done everything that her father has taught. She is as conserved as every other Alchemist woman. She sports a wardrobe of khaki with no color. She wears no makeup, no colors, she doesn't go out unless told to do so, she doesn't ask for anything more than she has, she never says no, she cleans the house with her sister and mother, and she doesn't do studies except for Alchemy. She kept every little complaint to herself for twelve whole years. She hasn't once asked for a blanket that's thicker, a bed that's bigger and not so creaky and hard, she never asked for a mattress, a gown with color, a book on architecture, or time for herself. She eats modestly taking in her father's every insult on how she's a pig. She eats far less than her father, mother, and sister do to keep the body her father wants, no matter how hungry she is. She's perfect. She is most definitely worthy of becoming an Alchemist. She has every right to be inked. So why is she still nervous? Why is she still scared?

XXX

Sydney rubs her hands on her gown nervously as she walks up the cobblestoned pathway with her father by her side. Her father watches her nervous mannerism and frowns.

"Do not rub your hands on your gown like that."

"Yes father," she whispers blushing as they pass by some Alchemists who bow down at the sight of her father. "Father, Zoe is eight. Will she be given her Golden Lily at ten?"

Jared Sage shakes his head. "No Sydney, she will not be given a tattoo. There has been a new law issued that only one child must be claimed an Alchemist. Since your sister Carly is dead, you will be the one to rise as an Alchemist. There will be no need for Zoe once you have passed your test."

Sydney flinches at how easily and calmly he mentioned his eldest daughter's death. Does he have no feelings for her? And the way he directly said that she's going to pass frightens her. What if… no, she chides herself. I will not think of anymore 'what if's'. I am going to pass. I can and must. A heavier weight is now put upon her shoulders. Her little sister Zoe, who's only nine years old, will be sucked into this world of nothingness, this world of horror of coming in face to face with them if she does not pass. Maybe, just maybe, when and if Sydney passes, her father will let Zoe be the child she is and let her play and wear beautiful gowns full of color and life. Her father always had a soft spot for Zoe like he once had with Carly. He looked down at Zoe with a light in his eye that Sydney never saw when her father looked at her.

"We are here," her father says as he stops before the small stone building before them. It's exactly how it was two years ago when she came to get her Lily. The chimney stands tall above the wooden roof, the makeshift door looks as intimidating as it was the first time she stood before it, and the stoned walls are washed anew. The only thing different is the garden that was once full of roses, marigolds, daisies, and tulips is frozen and covered in ice. "All you have to do now is walk in, state your name, and take a seat. Donna Stanton will ask you some questions and will then ask for your hand. You will give it to her and she will read your worthiness. It might be frightening at first because of the unnaturalness of it all but as the Master Alchemist, she had to make a sacrifice to corrupt herself with a little darkness in order to guide other humans who seek to become Alchemists down the right path. She will do you no harm. You will feel nothing but the warmth of her fingers.'

Sydney nods and reaches for the door when her father grabs her arm. Sydney turns around and looks up into his brown eyes. "Yes father?"

"Pull your stomach in, you've eaten a lot for breakfast and it is showing."

Sydney blushes and tries to hide that sinking feeling in her heart. Her father's insults are still as painful as they were during her early years. "Yes father," she whispers and enters the dark room with her stomach in. The door closes behind her, leaving her in a dark room with no lights. She spies a small round table and chairs in the middle of the building and makes her way towards it. "My name is Sydney Sage and I am here to be tested ma'am."

A candle bursts into flames besides her and light fills the room to reveal a woman with a beautiful, shining Golden Lily on her cheek. She has creamy white skin with pale blonde hair that is tied at the top of her head with a khaki ribbon that matches her gown. Her nose is big and stubby and her blue eyes are sharp like an eagles. It's Donna Stanton.

"Sit down child," she says. Sydney sits down on the seat and folds her hands neatly on her lap, swallowing back the wave of nausea that's creeping up on her. I must pass, I must pass, she tells herself. "How old are you? You are twelve right?"

"Yes as of today ma'am."

"And why is it that you want to become an Alchemist?"

"Because I want to serve you ma'am and other fellow Alchemist's. I want to keep my father's honor."

"You have big shoes to fill Miss Sage. Your father has done a lot of work for us. He has taken care of many Strigoi these days and has been a great ambassador between us and them. As you know, the Strigoi population has been rapidly increasing and they have been moving out from their lands and are attacking innocent villagers now. This has risen the need for Alchemists to dispose of the fallen Strigoi to hide from humans."

"Yes ma'am, I do know."

"Very good. I'd like to see your hand now," she says.

"Already?" Sydney asks. "Are there no more questions?"

Stanton chuckles. "The interview is an easy thing, now we must see what the lines on your palms tell me."

Sydney hands her hand to the Master Alchemist and watches carefully as Stanton reads it. The lady's grip on her hand suddenly tightens and her eyes narrows, as if she in shock.

"Never before," she whispers. "Never before have I seen anything like this with my eyes."

"W-what do you mean ma'am?" Sydney asks.

Donna Stanton lets go of her hand and scrambles away from the table as she holds a hand against her heart. "You do not belong here! You are not worth becoming an Alchemist! You will be rebellious, you have something dark in you child! Get out of here!"

Sydney cries and pushes her hand towards the lady again. "Read it again ma'am, read it again, I am not what you say!" she begs as tears run down her cheeks. How can this be happening to me? There must be some mistake!

"Stay away!" Donna yells. "Stay away!"

The door then flies open to reveal a pale faced Jared Sage. "What is happening in here?"

"Your daughter, she is… she has something dark in her Jared! I've seen it all, the lines of her palm tell me that she will be rebellious! She can never be an Alchemist!s"

Jared flushes a dark red and he grabs Sydney by her hair. Sydney cries out in pain and jumps to her toes as her father yanks her hair harder.

"Father there is a mistake!" she sobs. "I am not what she says father!"

Jared slaps Sydney across the face and drags her to the door by her hair. "Don't call me your father. You are nothing to me now, you are nothing to the Sage family," he hisses as he throws her out the door. Sydney cries and falls down the stairs, her cheek burning from where Jared.

"F-ather?" she whispers through her sobs.

"Get out. Leave this town. Donna is never wrong Sydney, and from what she says, you do not belong in Torou, the land of the Alchemists. You are a disgrace to me and a threat to our village and land," he says coldly.

Sydney scrambles to her feet and reaches for her father's hands. "Please….father believe me,"

Jared Sage shrugs the young woman off him and holds his head high. "Goodbye Sydney."

Sydney backs away from her father with her hands shaking by her side and her lower lip trembling. Tears run down her cheeks nonstop and her whole body breaks out into sobs that can be heard miles away. She looks at the small stone building in which Donna Stanton's on the floor, pale as a sheet and where her father stands on the porch, staring at her with hatred and disgust in his eyes. This was where her whole life was supposed to change, this was where she was supposed to have been Titled as an Alchemist and be inked. This was where she was supposed to make her father proud but instead the exact opposite happened. This was where she was supposed to have saved her younger from the ways of the Alchemists. She rubs at her eyes and turns around, broken. Without another glance back, Sydney walks down the same pebbled pathway she walked up with her dad, not knowing where she's going to go.

So what do you think? My story is going to have a lot of twists and stuff but it's basically Mulan themed. This is the part where Mulan goes to see to see the matchmaker and everything ends in chaos. Only difference is that Jared kicked her out of the village and Mulan's family still kept her.

I'm planning to have Hopper be Mushu but the thing is that Hopper can't talk in the books. Do you want him to talk and if he does, should he sound cute and adorable or big and manly? Or do you want him to be how he is now in the books and do the cute little things he does in the Bloodlines series?

Review please! They are much appreciated!