Alexandra walked down the street with a smile, reveling in the spring weather that had finally managed to come. It had been a long winter at Central this year, and now practically everyone in town was outside to bask in the warm air.

She looked like she was in her early twenties, maybe even nineteen, and instead of putting on her usual military uniform, she was wearing simple tan pants and a turquoise shirt. Her deep brown hair was out of its ponytail for once, and hung loosely around her shoulders. All in all, she would have looked like a normal young woman if it weren't for the glint of silver poking out of her pocket.

She confidently walked into the hotel on the side of the street, slipping her hand into her pocket as she did. Today was her day off, and once she had heard that the famous Fullmetal Alchemist was in town, she knew she had to meet him.

"Hi," she said, leaning against the reception desk and smiling at the man behind it. Her green eyes sparkled cheerfully in the little bit of light in the room. "I'm here to visit Mister Elric. Could you please direct me to his room?"

"Room 369," the man said. "Floor three and on the right." Alexandra nodded gratefully and headed towards the stairs.

It took a little bit of time for her to find her way through the hotel, but eventually Alexandra was standing in from of room 369. She pulled her hand back out of her pocket and knocked lightly on the door.

There was no answer for a few minutes, so she knocked again with a worried frown. Yet again, there was no answer. In fact, the room was completely silent. Alexandra worriedly put out a hand and pushed on the door. Much to her surprise, it was unlocked. She looked around cautiously, and then slowly walked into the room.

She gasped in surprise and held a hand to her mouth as soon as she walked in. The smell was overwhelming, and the sight before her wasn't much better.

Scrawled on the wall in blood were the words "Sacrificial Lamb," and underneath was a large suit of armor and small, bare-chested boy with their backs rested against each other. Alexandra pulled out her gun and walked forward slowly.

"Hello?" she called out gently. "My name is Alexandra Colton. I'm here to help." She froze when she could properly see the boy's face. His lifeless eyes indicated that he was obviously dead. Alexandra felt her stomach turn slightly when she looked down at the rest of him.

A large cross with a snake wrapped around it had been carved into his skin in the middle of his chest, by his collarbone was a crown-shaped wound, and stretching down his arms were cuts in the shape of wings. The cuts had been carved in carefully, by someone with a steady hand and a mind that could handle blood. Alexandra winced when she saw a bit of smooth white peeking out between the jagged edges of the cut on his arm. Whoever had cut him had cut down to the bone.

The large amount of blood made Alexandra think that the wounds had been created before he had died, which would explain the look of agony crossing the boy's features. Perhaps the blood loss had even killed him. The boy didn't look like he had been very healthy to begin with; in fact, Alexandra could count the ribs under his skin, and his skin was very pale. It almost looked as if he hadn't eaten for four years, if such a thing was physically possible. Alexandra sighed and lightly brushed bloody tan hair out of the boy's deep gray eyes. He clutched something tightly in his hands, and all his fingers were completely covered in blood.

She then stood up with a wince, willing her stomach to be still. The boy's body obviously wasn't fresh, considering the smell of rotting flesh that coated the room almost as thickly as blood. Flies hovered around the boy, filling the room with a hopeless buzzing.

"If anyone alive is still in here, then please come out," Alexandra called out gently. "I swear I won't hurt you. I just want to help." The room was still just as silent as it had been for who knows how long. Alexandra sighed and walked into the bathroom.

Her eyes widened at the sight that greeted her, and she quickly turned around and emptied her stomach onto the floor behind her. She steeled herself and closed her eyes. The smell was even worse in the small room than it was near the boy with the bloody carvings on his body, but that was to be expected. Alexandra took a deep breath and turned around again.

Lying on the tile floor was another boy, though he hardly looked like a boy after all he had gone through. A large cut had been made from his neck down to his hips, and then pushed aside to reveal the organs underneath. Alexandra felt her stomach turn again as she saw the grey decaying flesh of an intestine poking out at her.

On top of that, the boy was clutching his head in an automail hand. A head that looked like if had been ripped off his body before being placed in his hand. She could see the endings of nerves coming out the bottom of his neck in a gruesome entanglement. Bloody blond hair streamed out in waves across the back of the boy's hand that almost made Alexandra think of an angel. A bloody, fallen angel.

Alexandra sighed and looked around the small room, resting her hand on the wall beside her. There was so much blood coating everything that she couldn't even tell what color the bathroom had been to begin with. She distantly wondered if blood like that would ever truly leave the room, if a simple room in a hotel would come to be feared by children and called haunted because of what had once happened there.

With that thought, Alexandra left the hotel room as quietly as she had come, closing the door behind her. She would have put the bodies in better positions in hopes of making them feel more at peace, but she decided to leave the bodies as they were for the police. They would need all the evidence they could get.

She sighed and pushed her hands into her pocket, jerking slightly when her fingers brushed against the familiar cool metal. She pulled it out somberly and looked at the battered silver pocket watch that had been stamped with the symbol of State Alchemists.

"What's happened to the world, Papi?" she asked softly as she ran her fingers over the familiar pattern. Even though she hadn't touched much in the room, her hands had still been coated with blood, and now thick red blood dirtied the surface of her watch. "I joined the military because I thought I could help people. But how am I supposed to help them when things like this happen every day? The world is broken. It cannot be fixed by one person alone."

Suddenly, she realized something and straightened up before jamming the watch back in her pocket. Sure, the world couldn't be fixed by one person alone, but she could certainly do her part to make it a little better, couldn't she? Here she was, leaving the bodies for the police to take care of when she was the police. She was a State Alchemist, and dammit, she was going to use her powers to help the two boys in there.

She quickly pulled a clean piece of chalk out of her pocket and started drawing a transmutation circle on the cleanest patch of hardwood floor she could find. She knew her alchemy unnerved quite a few people, but she was too occupied in her own thoughts to consider that.

Once the circle was done, she quickly clapped her hands to it, and a bright blue light shone up from each of the lines. Alexandra smiled approvingly before standing up and stepping into the circle.

'Hello?' she called out again, this time knowing that normal people wouldn't be able to hear her. But she knew it wasn't normal people she was trying to help. And thankfully, instead of being greet with the same silence as before, Alexandra heard two different voices answer in reply.

'What the hell?'

'Who's there?'

'I'm a friend,' Alexandra reassured them softly. She then saw two boys carefully poke their heads out from the bed, looking her over curiously. She smiled at them and continued, 'My name is Alexandra Colton. I'm known as the Spirit Alchemist. I want to help you two.'

The two boys crawled out from under the bed and looked at her interestedly. Alexandra marveled at how different they looked when they weren't covered in blood and wounds. They were both young, young enough to be younger brothers to Alexandra.

And certainly too young to die.

'And how do you think you can help us?' the blond boy said disbelievingly, crossing his arms across his chest.

'Well, you could start with your names,' Alexandra said gently. 'Then I can tell your families what happened.'

'We're the only family we've got,' the blond boy said stubbornly.

'My name's Alphonse Elric, and he's my big brother, Edward Elric,' the tan haired boy said with a tentative smile.

'So you're the Fullmetal Alchemist?' Alexandra said in surprise as she looked at the small spirit boy standing in front of her. 'You know, I always admired you for all that you've done.'

'I… erm… thanks,' Edward said, scratching nervously at the back of his head.

'So what do we do now?' Alphonse asked softly.

'I'll try to find the man who killed you so you can both rest in peace,' Alexandra told them and both boys squirmed slightly. Alexandra figured that they still weren't used to the though of being dead, like most new ghosts. 'I would appreciate your help, but you don't have to help me if you don't want to. I know that this might be hard for both of you.' The two brothers glanced at each other, and then looked back at Alexandra determinedly.

'We'll help you,' Edward said firmly. Alexandra smiled slightly and nodded.

'Friends?' she asked, and the two brothers smiled back at her, though Alphonse's smile was much bigger than Edward's.

'Friends,' they agreed.

Yeah, sorry if it got a little bloody there. This popped into my head many nights ago, and the only way I could get the image to go away for any length of time was to write about it. I don't usually write fanfiction like this, though I realize it could have gotten much worse…