Well, it is translation of my own work, which I originally made in Polish, so, if you notice any spelling, grammatical or other mistakes- write me, 'cause I'm still learning(since 1998).
-Er, Colonel, I came to bring my ra… - Ed said and suddenly stopped, as he noticed Riza hushing him. Colonel was sitting at his table and drawing something with a pen. Ed looked at the drawing. It was a portrait of a girl, not very much younger than Ed- she could be about fourteen years old.
'Who's that?' asked Ed. Colonel even didn't notice him. He was crying.
Ed was surprised by that just as by the fact that Colonel was loafing about and Riza didn't react to this.
'What's about?' tried again Edward. Riza sighed.
'Colonel will be able to answer questions in about ten minutes. Now better don't interrupt him…' she murmured.
The next ten minutes nobody said anything. Then, Roy wiped away his tears, sighed and straightened his back.
'Oh, hi, Fullmetal' he said trying to make his voice sound natural. But Ed has already grabbed the drawing.
'Who's that?' he asked.
'Nelly' said the Colonel, just as if it was self-explanatory.
'I don't know any Nelly' said Ed.
'You won't, either. Today it's exactly seven years since she's dead.' Roy wept again. 'She was my sister.' he uttered.
Ed looked at the picture again.
'Have you any photo of her?' he asked.
'Of course. There are so few people knowing I've had a sister… look, in this picture she's three. I pick her up from the kindergarten.' Roy showed the photo, old and worn out, to Ed.
'She's blonde!' shouted Ed, surprised.
'Yeah, we both had fair hair until we were about five. Then, it started to darken. It was age difference of eight years between us…'
Ed noticed that Roy wanted to speak his mind. He couldn't say he wanted to hear all about the Colonel's childhood, but felt that showing him he can be a good friend will be good.
'Our parents waited long before they decided for a second child… it was because the risk of serologic conflict. You, Fullmetal, should know what it means… and I was already going to school- I rode my bike every day, oh, how I loved my bike… and one day, my father just came into the class and took me to the hospital, so that I could see my sister. She wasn't a very beautiful baby… I even thought she was very ugly, at the first time. But then, I couldn't imagine any woman prettier than Nelly. Amira Helen Mustang, it was her full name. Amira, it means "Princess". As you could know, my first name means "King", so you can imagine how ambitious our parents were. Well, you probably can't imagine living without Al, but I was an only child eight years! And I tried to be a good older brother. I was taking Nelly to parks, picking her up from kindergarten…' Roy wept again. 'She was only three when it happened. I came to kindergarten and she was already gone.'
'Gone?' asked Ed, 'How could she be gone?'
'It was… some man picked her up. He had ID card, for the name of Henry Mustang, and told them he's Nelly's grandpa. And they trusted him.'
'Didn't they phone your parents to check?'
'No, we had no phone then. And Mustang was never a very popular surname. I remember I was weeping to my pillow all night. Then, I missed two schooldays, looking for Nelly on my own… I got worst beating in my whole life then… yeah; our parents told the police that my sister was kidnapped. We asked every week if she was seen anywhere. I've been sticking posters, searching with my friends, but it was all for nothing. I remember mommy crying all days, and father out for long, long hours… It was about one year later when they both lost last remains of hope. I didn't. I started to learn alchemy and whenever I was, I asked about Nelly. When I became State Alchemist, my father told me that he didn't want to see me anymore. That military and police are same dogs, and so on. It hurt, yeah. My master was first to tell me I'm a military dog, and then my father… and I really haven't seen him then. Then… it was when I was twenty, there were some "turbulences" in slums… no one wanted to go there, as is was in slums alone. I went. It was… people in slums didn't want to see a girl with them, a girl who so much resembled twelve-year-old me. I looked at her and asked, "Nelly?" She always so much resembled me, so much… always… and she looked at me and said just, "Nii-san!"'
'So you found her?' Ed interrupted.
'Yeah. Nine years of stubborn hankering and I finally found my little Nelly. Of course, I took her… I explained my Colonel she's my sister and I don't know what to do with her. He let me keep her in the barracks. She helped me a lot, fixing my clothes… I have no idea when she learned to sew. And she made me gloves, my sparkling gloves. Almost every single pair, except this one you destroyed. And when I looked at her hands, I noticed scars, transmutation circles made of scars. She told me that the man who'd kidnapped her had waited until she fell asleep and then, she'd woken up far away from that place, with bloodstained hands. Then she'd been looking for us… but it had to be nine long years. And it's still not the end yet… as you know, two years later I was sent to battlefield. I had nothing to do with Nelly; I didn't know where our parents lived.'
'Welcome home, Nii-san!' Nelly yelled, hugging her brother. 'I've mended your trousers…'
'Nelly, it's hard to call it home… we live in barracks!' Roy gasped in her grasp.
'It is home, Nii-san… 'Cause we are here together.'
'Y-yeah, you are right. As long as we are here, our home is here. What's this?' Roy pointed at a pile of stuff on the table.
'Oh, I've checked how these circles work. See, if I put some stuff in a circle like this… I can transmute only first five-millimeter layer of this. And the same if I draw these circles on some stuff! I've also drawn mouse's muscle tissue.'
'Good! Maybe when you're big and strong…' Roy unconsciously sung 'You'll become a State Alchemist, won't you?'
'Great!'
Nelly noticed that Roy got a bit sad when he looked at pictures and samples of animal tissues. Maybe he thought of human transmutation…
'Nii-san… it's going to be good.'
'She was telling me that very often… well, every time I needed it. And she believed in this. "Nii-san, it's going to be good"… now, no one tells me this, let alone believing it's really going to be good… and her works about tissues had great future. Nelly's been creating plant and animal tissues, and once, she even created whole living plant!'
'What happened to it?' Ed asked, interested. Roy sighed again.
'It was eaten… well, Nelly created a lettuce. And there was this bed stuff… Nelly made herself something like liar, but it even didn't resemble a bed. Yes, we had a bed, but only one. I sometimes lay in her liar… guess what she did then…'
'I think she wedged herself beside you.'
'You're right, Fullmetal. And then, I was sent to the front…'
'Nelly… I have to go to Ishvar. You know, there is a war there…'
'I see, Nii-san. So when we go?'
'WE?'
'Yeah, we. Do you think I'm going to let you alone? Or maybe you think you can leave me all alone? No, Nii-san, and don't worry… it's going to be good.'
'We went to the East together. In the meantime, she made me several pairs of gloves… I gave her arms so that she wasn't all unarmed… small arms, and firearms too. Most of the time she either was sewing, or mending, or making research on organic alchemy. She wasn't rather fighting. Then, one night, she was outside the tent in which we slept. She had a knife, attached to a long stick. An Ishvarite approached the tent. He had a gun. Before he must have killed or maybe stunned that night's guardians… but he didn't notice Nelly. She was very hard to notice… and she was easily mistaken with me, 'cause my little Nelly always looked exactly like me… And she noticed him. She plunged this knife right in his heart. He started screaming… he woke me up. I went out of the tent and the first while, I didn't recognize my little Nelly… she was all bloodstained, fortunately with his blood. And she was shocked.'
Nelly was petrified, improvised-spear-length from dead Ishvarite. Blood- his blood- swamped her arms beyond elbows, her face, neck and most of her chest. Noisome smell and sweet taste filled her nose and mouth. She heard her brother's voice hazily.
'Nelly? Are you OK? Say something! Nelly! Nelly!'
'Nii-san', she uttered, still petrified. Roy gently took her weapon out of her hands. Then, he threw the corpse away. And the first and only time it was he who had to say this.
'Nelly… it's going to be good. Come into, night is cold…'
'And we slept together. In the whole camp she was the only one who didn't have murderer's eyes… she had rather eyes of some frightened animal. She was terrified by what she was able to do. She didn't understand either why alchemists, who can create, have to destroy… well, I don't understand it, either. However, she didn't lose her optimism and trust. Every day I heard "Nii-san, it's going to be good". And she really believed in it. Even when I didn't- she did, always. That's why I miss her so much. I miss someone to believe in me.'
'And me?'
'You don't have such optimism. You yourself are the one who don't believe in better future.'
The war has ended fortunately, and Roy could return home.
'Return home?'
'Yeah, Nelly, home. It's empty now, but we'll be there together.'
'Nii-san, we are home!'
'How?'
'Home is where we are together.'
'So now I'm homeless. She was right. She had no home without me, and neither have I without her. Well, it's now her fault. Riza helps me, but it's not the same. It'll never be. You burnt your house… but my home died with Nelly.'
'How did she die? Was it during the war?'
'No. and that's why it was so painful for me… during the war, she'd be just next victim. It was… normal that people- lots of friends- died. But it was after war… and this phone call was the last thing I could expect.
'Nelly, I'm going to work. Would you do the shopping? We've run out of cheese.'
'I will, Nii-san. Return soon!'
'If I could… we are very busy now, you know. But I'll try.'
Roy went to work and not long after Nelly also left home. She was returning with what she bought, when…
'Lieutenant Colonel Mustang, call from civil line.'
Roy answered.
'Hallo?'
'Lieutenant Colonel, please immediately come to the hospital.'
'What the hell… Nelly?' Roy gasped.
'Please come.'
Roy rushed to the hospital as quickly as he could.
'What happened… my sister… what…'
'She looks like she was blown up from inside… she's still alive, but it won't last long.'
'How long?'
'An hour… not more.'
'No, it can't be! Not Nelly… let me in! Let me in!'
Roy ran up to Nelly's bed. She was lying and breathing calmly. Roy saw lots of blood on her bandages. She's going to die, Roy thought. She heard his footsteps, opened her eyes and slightly raised her head.
'Nii-san…' she smiled.
'Nelly…' Roy uttered and stroked her cheek, giving her that simple, brotherly caress they both liked. Nelly smiled wider.
'Nii-san, it's going to be good… isn't it? Is it going to be good, Nii-san?' she suddenly asked. Roy couldn't dare to tell her the truth.
'Y-yeah, Nelly, it's going… to be good… you'll return home… soon…' Roy tried to wipe a tear unnoticeably, but Nelly noticed it.
'You are crying, Nii-san?'
'Y-yeah, but don't worry, it's OK…'
'Nii-san, it's GOING to be GOOD!' Nelly almost stood up, but Roy stopped her. She really believed in it…
He stayed with her to the very end, holding her hand. Suddenly she started coughing with her own blood.
'Nii-san, it's going to be good…' she said in a hoarse voice and died.
Roy seemed thunderstruck.
'Nelly… Nelly!' he yelled, knowing it's hopeless, it won't help… and as well as he understood he's not going to see his sister again, as strongly he hoped it's only a nightmare and he'll wake up soon in his own bed, hugging Nelly.
'After her funeral I was like mad. I closed myself home… well, the place which was home when Nelly was alive… now I know it was Scar who killed her. And it seems she earned this last hour by her alchemy… I desired death. I was screaming and yelling like possessed. I was tearing my own body… I was eating nothing, maybe I was drinking something- I can't remember. I didn't notice time. They say that joyful don't count hours… (AN: it's polish proverb) neither do depressed. I have no idea if I slept- I don't know if what I saw was dream or hallucination… I saw Nelly dying, telling me "It's not going to be good… never!" I heard same words from her murderer- I had no doubts she was murdered… I sunk in sorrow. And finally, Riza helped me.'
'I guess she hugged you, stroked and told you she loved you.'
'Not exactly. She acted more… rattling.'
Riza entered Roy's flat. She was furious, as the Lieutenant Colonel for a month- since his sister's funeral- hasn't been in work. The door wasn't closed, but the beast-like screams from inside could frighten every single burglar to death.
But not Riza, who experienced Ishvar war.
Roy was sitting, springing to his feet, flinging himself on the floor and again getting up, screaming all the time. On his face, waxy, pale and hollow-cheeked, Riza saw sweat, blood from scratched wounds and tears, flowing in streams. Roy was stinking, just as if he hasn't taken a shower or a bath since Nelly's death. Probably he hasn't, Riza thought. Moreover, he was so haggard that Riza thought that he even hasn't eaten anything since then.
She approached weakened Lieutenant Colonel and gave him a rap. He was a little bit surprised, but continued his actions, so Riza repeated. And again, until Roy calmed down. Then Riza grabbed him by the middle and brutally took him to the bathroom. She threw him to the bath and splashed freezing cold water right on his head. He seemed more conscious, but still didn't understand what she was telling him. Riza splashed another bucket of water, and another, till her aim was reached.
'R-riza?' Roy was surprised.
'No, Havoc.' Riza snorted. 'Isn't it obvious? It's me! What are you thinking, huh?! Nelly's death was a shock for every single one of us, not only for you! Don't you understand?! She saved your life! You don't want to mishandle this, do you?! Sit down and eat! I brought you some food from military mess, 'cause at yours all food is already walking, I believe!' (AN: we in Poland say this when food is extremely not fresh)
Roy started eating when Riza went to check his fridge. Just as she expected, all stuff was crawling and the smell was worse than Ishvarites' chemical weapons. Half of the food from the fridge landed in a bucket.
Almost the same while Riza saw that Roy REALLY hasn't eaten anything for a month. His worn-out organism didn't manage to accept food and Roy vomited. Riza decided to cook him something like a paste for Roy doesn't starve to death… or maybe he WANTED to starve to death. And this meant only that Riza had to keep tabs on him.
'And she's been feeding me. Not much at once, ten or more times a day, till I was able to eat normally… to live normally. And it was a long time. About a fortnight, before I regained some flesh and a little bit optimism. And then, you two… I yelled so much at you 'cause you did what I didn't dare. I still recall Nelly… and still, at least once a year I visit her grave. When I lived in East City, it was more often, now it's only her death anniversary… and, of course, I go today.'
'Would you like me to go with you?'
'No, thank you. I'd rather be alone.'
Colonel left the office and went to the railway station. He bought a ticket to East City and got into first train to there. When he arrived, he bought some white carnations (AN: is this name of these flowers?) and went to the graveyard.
One of these simple graves, somewhere aback. Name saying nothing to most people: Amira Helen Mustang. Photo, black and white, was showing a little smiling blonde girl on the shoulder of an already handsome, black-haired boy. Instead of an epitaph- "Nii-san, it's going to be good!". Roy sighed. The only photo of Nelly! They wanted to take more when Hughes would buy a camera… but he bought it after Nelly's death. That's why the photo showed a three-year-old girl when birth and death dates claimed she was fourteen.
'Eh, Nelly, who'd believe in me now? Who?' Roy sighed.
'Me!' he heard from behind his back. The voice was cunningly similar to Nelly's voice.
'Envy, if you want to kill me, go on.' Roy even didn't look behind. Someone covered his eyes. Roy felt something like admiration for Envy. Even the scent was Nelly's scent…
'Nii-san, it's going to be good!' shouted the person behind Roy. Just like Nelly…
'Envy, please don't pretend you're Nelly, do you think I don't know she's dead? There is no alchemy that can resurrect a dead…'
'But I had playing cards… Nii-san, look! I'm alive!'
Roy eventually looked back. The girl he looked at certainly wasn't Envy. She had this sincere, thrusting smile… Nelly's smile, smile he missed for seven long years.
'Nii-san, I can explain you everything…'
Nelly was going home, with all the shopping, when Scar stood on her way.
'Miss Amira Mustang?' he asked rhetorically. All differences between Nelly and Roy (when was her age) were two thin pigtails hanging near Nelly's ears.
'Y-yeah, it's me. Could you let me go?'
'Never. You can pray now.'
Scar's hand lay on Nelly's head. Her first thought was "I must run!" but the second one, which was "My circles protect me, he can destroy only first five millimeters!" calmed her down. She let him destroy a bit of her skin and dashed as soon as Scar took his hand back. She ran into a dark street, where she created something similar to her body. Of course, The Gate sucked her into itself.
'You!' Nelly shouted at Truth. 'It's you that Truth, this poor, lonely creature who steals parts of people's bodies?'
'Yes, it's me.'
'You must be very bored here.'
'Stop talking, little girl, and give me your right leg.'
'Maybe we can play cards with it as a bet.'
'Play cards?'
'Yeah, if you win, I'll give you my leg and you won't let me into, and if I win, you'll let me into and I won't give you my leg. Could it be?'
'Of course. How to play this game?'
Nelly taught Truth playing cards. As she thought that this creature learns quickly, she proposed playing "to two won hands" and she played her best in first one.
Nelly won too easily, so the second one, she took a powder, only to give the Truth impression of equal game. The third one, she slightly won.
The Gate showed her all the secrets of alchemy she could have for a leg.
Truth asked her for another game, betting that he (it?) would let her into again. Nelly agreed. This time Truth won the first hand devastatingly, and Nelly won two next ones- slightly. After visiting the Gate, she wanted to return home.
'Truth… two games are enough for you? You know, my brother will get worried if I don't return home soon…' she said.
'No, let's play again. Do you know how much time is still before your brother finishes work? We have time for a game or two… I bet courage against your leg.'
'OK, as you want.'
They played again and again. Truth left game for a little while and returned with some body, arm and leg.
'Now the bet is- you take this or give me your leg!' he shouted. 'Then the bet could be next alchemy secrets… The Philosopher's Stone! And then… your freedom.'
'OK, OK, sit down and let's play.'
Only the seventh game was played for Nelly's freedom. And only then she, taking a body, arm and leg, she left the Gate.
'You… have this body?' Roy asked.
'Yeah, over there. This arm and leg also. Why?'
'Well… this… stuff… belongs to my subordinates. You still want to take the State Alchemy Exam?'
'Of course! And you, Nii-san, you can you put me in way of it... for tomorrow?' Nelly almost purred.
'I'll try.'
Next day
The Flame Colonel was sitting at his desk, working. He was doing it- what astonished the Fullmetal Shor… uh, I meant Alchemist- almost enthusiastically. Nothing remained from his yesterday melancholy. He was even humming some tune. As he saw Elric brothers, he took wings and stood up.
'My dear! You have your report, haven't you? Come on, it's a lucky day today!'
'Colonel, are you drunk?' Ed asked. 'Or maybe it's about this extraordinary State Alchemy Exam, about which I heard from Havoc?'
'Yeah, it's that! Um… Al, why are you scratching yourself?'
'I feel some... tingling.'
'How can it be? You don't have body, though. And, listen, boys, I yesterday got to know how much I was wrong. The exam is going to end soon…'
Just the Colonel finished saying this, the door slammed open. A young woman, maybe slightly after twenty, entered the office. She was very similar to Roy… if Ed didn't see other number of stars on her shoulders (two less on each) and tiny pigtails, he would promise it was Roy's twin. Then, he saw such differences as simple sex differences, but apart of these…
'Nii-san, I've passed!' the woman smiled. It must be Nelly Mustang, Ed thought. Roy smiled and gave her a brotherly hug.
'Colonel….' Ed whispered. 'You told me your sister is a nice girl… but you didn't give me a slight idea that she's SO beautiful…'
Roy's smile widened.
'Why? I've told you my little Nelly was always identical like big brother!'
THE END
R&R please.
AN: it was hard to translate! I'll be glad for some constructive criticism if needed.