*Writers' Note

Hey readers and fans of FMA! I wrote a story last year that I decided to rewrite and create a more realistic view of this story that's been bugging me since I finished watching the series (damn you Edward). This one is similar to the last one except for a few changes and wraps around major events in the original FMA storyline. Hope you like it!*

Chapter I

Fake Your Death

In Amestries, a country filled with wealth and knowledge of Alchemy, the military host a special State Alchemist test to accept Alchemists over the age of fourteen into the military as 'dogs' to do whatever it is King Bradley orders them to do. The youngest alchemist is 15 year old Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist. Proving his worth and greed to find a special stone to save his little brother, Alphonse, Edward sets the stage as the most pestering and determined alchemist the military has ever seen. However, in a country Aerugo, war was breaking out and the king was dead leaving behind his wife and four children.

"We can't stay here, it's no longer safe!"

"Renee! Renee where are you?"

"Renee!"

"Whatever happened last night… that huge earthquake… it killed everyone, even mom…"

"Look, it doesn't matter anymore! John, Lenny, we need to get out of here! King Bradley is just beyond that grassland and I can bet you that he killed Dad. RENEE WHERE ARE YOU!"

"They had alchemists with them…."

"Dammit, Renee! WHERE ARE YOU!"

"They were the dogs of the military…"

"Dogs?"

"Servants to King Bradley."

"RENEE!"

The train whistle roared as Renee woke up with her older brother, Michael, shaking her shoulder.

"We're about to arrive in central." Michael told her as she lifted her face off the glass, her cheek cold and soft as she sat up, how long has she been asleep?

"Today's the day!" John smiled as he looked out the window to see the peaks of the tall buildings in central over the trees that were flying past them. Renee grumbled and took a piece of cornbread from Micheal's plate. Yes… today was the day… the State Alchemy exams.

"Maybe we'll see Roy again!"

"Oh… yippee." Renee muttered as Michael stared at her.

Since they jumped a train heading to Amestries to flee from Bradley, Renee couldn't stand to see all the happy people in the streets where as back home, everyone was dead. The reports of their 'missing' bodies, meaning her family, haven't been uncovered yet. To the military, the Blanche family vanished into thin air… The cornbread was stale and hard to swallow but she was used to the poor food in this country after living on the streets or cheap inns for six months. Her brothers would work a few weeks doing odd jobs and her only task was to search and pickpocket travelers or the careless. It wasn't her idea to 'try-out' for the military position however. Michael was a part of the military as one of the best swordsmen, his technique so quick a gun couldn't even snag him. Michael was fast on his feet and quick to sign up to snoop on the military and see documents about their country and how close they were getting to finding out the truth about the Blanche family.

The train roared again and Lenny, the youngest of the twins, threw pieces of paper at John and Michael. Renee's mind buzzed in questions and the nervous butterflies in her stomach fluttered once she saw the top of the central command building. Her old teacher was the Flame Alchemist, a man with no words to say because all he did was snap his fingers. He was cool, calm, collected and comfortable with his job. Something Renee practiced for since they arrived. Her reason for joining? To spy on Bradley and discover the flaw in the military's bulletproof battle plans and find out about that earthquake that killed everyone in her beloved kingdom. One silly little earthquake couldn't possibly kill and destroy an entire kingdom in one night, the chances of that were impossible. Renee was more scared to see Roy, not Bradley. The tests would be easy but seeing Roy after six years? Not as easy. Since the last meeting she was fifteen and him, twenty-three. She was cursed with her family's famous curse. The hand of pure ice, a special 'power' given to a child who would later on rule the country but the power was later on discovered called alchemy. Renee was given the chance to bind and freeze water into ice and use her power as a weapon by creating ice staffs or large spikes using water on the floor. Her father had the same power but had lessons from a man called Berthold Hawkeye, the same man who taught Roy. It was 1907 when the man with could use fire as alchemy appeared before their palace to give lessons. The man who taught Renee how to use her special 'talent' wisely even though he wasn't 'gifted' like her when she didn't have to use a circle, just clap her fingers and the ground would freeze like a pond on a December night. For weeks he stayed at the palace and trained her to become a weapon her father would toss onto the battlefield once the training was complete.

"Why are you leaving?" She asked Roy as he turned to look at her, his face painted with despair and grief.

"They called me back to fight in the civil war." Roy replied as he handed his bags to a lower rank officer.

"You can't leave me though! We're not done training!" Renee cried and Roy only laughed and patted her head.

"You act like the type of girl I want to marry, Princess."

"Funny considering I'm almost a decade younger than you and stop calling me that, it's Renee."

"Age is just a number, you'll see for yourself when you visit central headquarters that one day you might see I'm right about you."

"We'll see each other again?"

"Of course. You owe me a crown of jewels remember? See ya later, Princess." He waved at her and left without another word but a smile he gave her as he drove off towards the station.

She blocked her mind off of anything Mustang related. She wanted to find that bastard Bradley and rip his throat for what he did to her country.

"Some say he's a man with no words, he uses his strength over his brain, a kill and ask questions later kind of guy."

She grabbed the paper next to her and flipped through the pages of bullshit reporters tried to make a huge fuss about. Some priest a fraud? BIG DEAL!

"Hey isn't that about the priest Fullmetal discovered was a fake?" John asked as he tried grabbing the paper from his sister. She kicked his seat with her brown lace up boots and glared at him. "Oh come on, Renee. Remember when we saw him at the marketplace a few months ago? Wow… he's so cool!"

"And tiny." Renee smirked as she tossed the paper into the garbage can near the door. What the hell was the military doing letting little shrimp alchemists run around fixing people's broken things? Edward Elric was a pest, a little bug on her window. She knew right away he had automail by the way he ran and his fighting technique was quick but rusty. When they saw him four months ago in a dingy little town he was smooth and collected but both Renee and Michael knew on the inside he was broken and hurting from something. His metal partner, Al, was slow and had to draw a circle in order to use alchemy. Edward did not.

"Central Station!" The conductor announced as the train came to a halt inside a large indoor station, the sunlight streaming through the large circular windows near the ceiling. Renee picked up her only luggage, a small duffle bag containing a few clothes and her tiny white dog , Nayo, who was sniffing the air frantically looking for a scent of tasty food. He barked and peered outside the bag resting his paws on her shoulder as she threw the bag over her shoulder.

"Central looks so… clean." Lenny said as the boys followed Renee out to downtown Central just outside the station. The central headquarters were only three blocks north and one block east, a fifteen minute breeze walk. Renee pulled her hood up to cover her face and a gray scarf to keep her nose and mouth warm against the harsh winds that invaded Central today. No one would be able to recognize them and that's the way she wanted it to be. What if Mustang thinks you're dead? Renee avoided that question. Well… then he'll be in one hell of a surprise tomorrow during the examination when she'll have to show off in front of all the alchemists. Renee clenched her right hand, the hand with the alchemy circle tattooed on the top of her hand to represent ice, the left one contained a similar tattoo with the representation of the earth or water as her father put it. Balance the two and you can freeze almost anything you want. She even added a few blue vines that swirled around the circle and went up to her shoulders and moved to the back of her neck where a beautiful raven in flight flew away from the connecting vines. On her left wrist had the saying: Are we human? Or are we warriors? On the right was: Give me something to remember. She got them from Rush Valley, a small automail town but boy, did the tattoos look beautiful on her.

Renee was nothing like the other twenty-one year old girls. Most of them were out on dates or getting married and she was either practicing alchemy or jumping buildings and pickpocketing people. The others would wear fancy dresses or jewelry and here she was wearing lace up boots, brown beat up jeans, a brown leather jacket and some overly large gray wrap or 'scarf' as she used it for at the moment but in some cases as a little snap to her outfit. Her long auburn hair was pulled back in a French braid and hidden inside her hood but her face was pale and her lips a soft pink to match her overly large brown truffle color eyes. She didn't act like a girl, or even a princess for that matter but no one has questioned her behavior except a flirty boy she later punched in the face. Yes, Renee was far from ordinary but when survival was in her hands she stopped at nothing to keep her brothers healthy and working.

They approached the large sparkly building or Central Command that looked out of place beyond belief but they didn't care. Renee handed her bag to Michael and walked up the large steps to the double doors that were covered in the colors of the military. She looked back and waved at her brothers, they replied with a wave and Nayo yelped a goodbye before she went inside to take the written portion.

"Hey guys you lost or something?" A small boy asked them over the screaming wind. The three brothers turned, their eyes growing wide as the Fullmetal alchemist stood before them holding a brown duffle bag giving them a small smile.

"You passed the written exam… Raven is it?" The officer asked Renee as she stood up and faced him, her jacket off to show her overbearing tattoo vines the white t shirt couldn't hide. "The examination is set for tomorrow morning at nine, King Bradley himself will be there to watch and pick out the strongest alchemist. I'm impressed though because you got the highest score, Raven."

"Thanks." Renee smiled. Like hell she was going to tell this low rank officer her real name or anybody her real name, what if Mustang picked up her test results? He'll kill her if he found out she was here without his knowing. She shook hands with the young officer, his smile a sign of flirtation that she ignored.

"I like the tattoos by the way… they make you look tough and tomboyish." The officer replied as he spotted the circles on her hands. Renee chuckled.

"If you only knew what I did to get them, they were pretty expensive but maybe… I should get some more, maybe one on my neck. Any tattoo parlors in Central?"

"Um…" The officer's face turned red. "There is a small one on main street."

"Thanks I'll check it out after the exam. Stay classy." She threw on her jacket and pulled up her hood and placed the knit scarf or whatever it was called around her shoulders and let it drape down to her elbows as she left the dingy waiting room and into the large gleaming hallway where she ran into a tiny boy wrapped in a red cloak.

"Hey watch where you're going!" The kid said. Renee took a step back and glared at him through the shadows that covered her face from the hood. She left the place with the feeling of kicking that little brat until he cried but why bother? As soon as she saw her brothers, their faces covered in large smiles as they happily told them about meeting the Fullmetal alchemist she realized who that little punk was. Edward Elric. Whatever. She had better things to worry about, not some stupid kid.

"It's tomorrow at nine." Renee snapped at them as they made their way to the fancy military hotel where she was able to snag a room for them because of the test. Renee Blanche was brave. She was bold. She was the girl with an elastic heart.

"So who passed the written exam?" Mustang asked one of the lower ranked soldiers who were looking at the list of names of qualified alchemists for tomorrow.

"Just ten. I met a mysterious one though, her name is Raven." The younger one said as he handed Roy the list of names. "She had a bunch of tattoos on her arms and hands, some sorts of circles on her hands and vines up her arms."

"Wow… how odd for a girl her age." Roy said looking over the alchemists' profiles. He skimmed through 'Raven's' profile and closed her file.

"Did you see that the search for the missing royal family was called off?" The other officer asked him. Roy took a sip of water and crushed the paper cup in his hand. Damn that Bradley.

"So I heard. Such a shame considering Renee is a trained alchemist."

"Yeah… Bradley would've loved her to join the force wouldn't he?"

"You can say that." Roy said peering out the window, a small group of people walking towards the hotel kept him occupied as he tried burning the memories of his student, Renee Blanche, from his mind. Edward Elric would be in here any moment to gloat about the Reole job he finished and his mind was too preoccupied with someone who was most likely dead for all he knew. Roy Mustang was courageous. He was daring. He was the solider on fire.