Raven59038: I know I was pretty far and wasn't updating my story, but upon further review I decided I didn't like where it had gone and wanted to rewrite it so that it won't be so confusing to write. This prologue offers a bit more background that the previous prologue.
Disclaimer: Ha! I wish I owned FullMetal Alchemist. Gods, that would be the day...
Prologue
A young girl sat on a desk covered in papers with barely legible script covering them, legs crossed with a leather bound journal resting open in her lap. A man finished marking up an alchemy circle and consulted the journal one more time. He dragged a massive steel cage into the center of the circle, careful to not smudge any of the lines. A chimera stuck its paw out, trying to slash at the man's leg.
He slapped the paw away with a frown on his face. "Let us hope this will work this time. My employers are getting tired of my failures." He ruffled the young girl's light brown curls. "Calm the beast down, darling. I can't think with all its thrashing." The girl jumped down, smoothing her dress before walking into the circle. She knelt in front of the cage and stuck her hand through the bars, caressing the chimera's face. The man listened as she hummed softly, the chimera calming and lying down in its cage, purring slightly. "Thank you, love."
She stepped out of the circle and stood behind the man as he placed his hands on the edge of the circle. Light flashed and two animals started crying. "It worked. It worked!" He picked up the girl and spun her in the air. "It worked this time!" She smiled at the man.
The pair, now older, stood in front of a large manor house, surrounded by steamer trunks. "This is it, our new house. My employers gave me the house in return for my research. This is what we've been waiting for."
"Of course."
The man looked at the girl. "It's a great opportunity for us. I'll get to do more of the research that I want and you'll have a better life than before. I'll make you new pets."
The girl just sighed and walked into the house, the man following her.
"Darling, I'd like to introduce you to my friend."
"Don't you mean employer?" The girl said dryly. "Either way, good day sir. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have my own work to do."
"I'm teaching her alchemy. She seems to do quite well for her age," the man explained to his companion.
"An alchemist you say? Maybe I should give her a gift, to supplement your teaching." The man looked worried as his companion followed the girl's progress with his eyes, a cold, calculating look in his eyes.
"Why are you doing this!?" The girl struggled against the bonds that kept her tied to a chair, hands apart. Her hair was wild from the struggle before, her pet chimeras lay dead at the doorway.
"Because my employers have chosen you for the next experiment. I have no choice on this. I have to do this." The man rolled open a leather packet filled with syringes and a glass vial. "Besides, this should work. You'll be fine." The girl struggled in her chair, dark brown eyes watching as the man filled a syringe with a glistening red liquid. "Just, stay calm. My employers don't know all the side effects."
The girl screamed as the man came closer. "Don't do this! HELP ME!"
"No one's here to help you. Screaming won't do you any good. Now just calm down." The man inserted the syringe into the girl's arm, injecting the red liquid into her bloodstream. "I'm sorry about this."
"Where is the girl, doctor? You know you have to give her to us."
"I don't even know if it worked. Don't touch that, please. It's very delicate." The man wrung his hands as several young men examined his living room.
"Our other scientists will figure out if it worked, you've become too invested in this to be useful to your employers now. So, where is she?" One of the men, the leader, grabbed the doctor by his shirt. "She is now the property of your employers and you will regret hiding her. Boys, search the house, seize anything that looks like it might be important."
"What will they do to her?"
"Experiments, I don't fully know because I don't really care. I'm charged with getting her and that's it. But it's your own damn fault for letting your own daughter be used as your test subject." The man struck the doctor in the face. "You will tell me where she is!"
"I don't know where she is. It's a large house, I can't keep track of her all the time."
"Then you are useless to us." The soldier thumbed back the hammer on his gun and pointed it at the doctor.
"Don't hurt my dad!" The girl stepped around the corner, her expression angry. "He may have made me his test subject, but it was your stupid employers who made him do it. You hurt him and you can tell your employers that I'll never help them."
The soldier laughed. "Girlie, you lost that choice when you became a test subject. And I'll prove it to you." The gun went off and the bullet exploded out of the back of the doctor's head.
"Wrong move." The girl was suddenly in front of the soldier. Dark shadows streamed into the man's pores as he screamed. "I'll never work for you. I make my own rules." She picked up a leather bound journal and grabbed other books from the bookshelves before disappearing further into the house.
She stood in front of the house, two trunks at her feet, staring at it. She sighed and glanced at the shadows that swirled around her feet, growing in the fading light. "Guess it did work. Ah well, time to move again." She lit a match and held it to the torch in her hand. "Good bye father."
She turned, throwing the torch against the house as she did, her trunks floating behind her.
(A.N.: This segment is in first person POV. Sorry for the sudden switch.)
The door to my measly room slammed open, the man behind me radiating anger and disgust. My brown eyes narrowed in on the sloshing bucket and the gloves he wore to protect his skin from the contents. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"None of your-" He threw the bucket's liquid contents on me and everything was replaced with a burning sensation. I couldn't feel anything but the burning.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" It's my voice screaming. I feel so detached from my actions all the sudden. All there is is the pain. My face is on fire. The man is screaming at me, but I can't understand the words. The pain starts to lessen; I can focus on the words.
"HOW COULD YOU?! I TOLD YOU TO GIVE IT UP WHEN I TOOK YOU IN!!" Stop screaming, I thought. I don't let anyone boss me around. "IT'S EVIL! YOU-"
My clapping hands and the look on my face silences him as shadows start to pour onto him. I lock the door behind me as I leave the quivering mass of flesh and this past behind, yet again. An emotion wells up in my chest as I consider burning the place down.
Hatred.
