In her short life of sixteen years, Ava Nieuport has done many unusual things. She had killed people. She had forced people to kill themselves. She had made people kill their own families and lovers.
Ava was an alchemist. Her official title was the Soul Alchemist, but everyone called her the Blood Alchemist.
She never showed remorse about killing. It was almost as though she didn't believe anyone could die. Sometimes, after she had killed someone, she would continue to use her alchemy. She would continue to make them live.
Flashback to two years ago, in Ishbal. It was one of those times. The two young Ishbalan children lay bleeding on the ground, and their dead father continued to dance about in front of Ava.
The mother lay there, sobbing, "Please stop, let him rest in peace," but Ava didn't stop. She just smiled.
A young man walked up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Ava," he said, "it's time to go."
She looked up and said one word. "Jack." The Ishbalan man collapsed in a heap.
Jack was Ava's Living Emotional Crutch. The nineteen-year-old had a sort of special connection with her. He could always comfort her or calm her down. There was an unspoken agreement between them.
Jack was killed by a deserter two weeks later. Ava didn't believe he was dead, and kept his animated corpse with her for two months until a fire forced her to leave him behind. She was heartbroken. And yet she still didn't believe he was dead.
Flash-forward again to the present day. Ava was a fragile shell of the girl she had once been. Without Jack, there was no one to keep her in check, and she would sometimes go on rampages, destroying every building in sight. The military tried to conceal her existence, to cover up their terrible mistake of sending such a young girl to the war front.
She learned to love the people she had once killed, and they in turn tolerated, if not accepted, her. She now lived in the Ishbalan slums outside Central City, using her powers as little as possible so as not to harm anyone. But all that changed with a summons to Central Command.