Disclaimer : Fullmetal Alchemist characters belong to Hiromu Arakawa, but the character that will appear starting chapter 1 is mine.
Paring : mild Lyra/OC towards the end
Rating : K+
Notes : I'm from France and most of my fics are based on the anime, so I spell some of the names differently : Liza and Lyra.
Just so you know, this is the translation of story I wrote in French about a year ago and it stays the one that got the most comments so far (with in second place an alternative context to another author's story and in third one that's planned on the long term and in 20 chapters got about twice the number of readings and half the number of comments of the one you're about to read).
Introduction :
Edward's murder had jumbled quite a few things. First of all, Winry and Pinako were terribly resentful towards Mustang who had encouraged Edward to join the army and considered him responsible of what had happened. Alphonse had taken the colonel's defence:
-It's not his fault! Leave him alone!
-Alphonse! Are you on our side or his?
-I'd better not be on someone's side. But if you make me choose…
Then there was Alphonse's unexpected reaction:
-I'm with him! Too bad if you're not happy with that! I'm going back to East City with him!
Sometime later, while the soldiers of the East HQ were running after Scar in an abandoned butcher shop, a strong blow of wind had made a chopper from a tall piece of furniture and it had cut Scar's right arm off, weakening him and making him unable to defend himself. He got captured and was sentenced to death shortly after. Everyone had still admitted that is was most of all a big strike of luck that this chopper had fallen and cut the killer's arm off. In any rate, that event gave a lot of relief to the victim's relatives.
A little later, Mustang was transferred to Central and took his whole team with him. Their office was quite near the one were Hughes worked, which meant it was also close to the first branch of the National Library:
-Oh, hi mister Mustang. It's the first time you're coming here, isn't it?
What therefore changed : Edward and Scar are dead. Alphonse never knew about Marcoh's notes and never went to the fifth laboratory that still exists (Greed and the chimeras are still in there) and didn't meet Ross and Brosh, Barry the chopper in an armour, or the homonculi and never saw Tucker again. Sheska didn't join the army, Hughes didn't get killed, Izumi didn't find her student's track in Central and Warth is still hidden on Yok Island. Neither Alphonse nor Winry went to Rush Valley or Dublith. But the story won't end for so much…