Disclaimer: People, do I look like Arakawa Hiromu-sensei? Do I look like a cow? Hmmmmm? That's right, just leave that one unanswered and you'll be fine. Fullmetal Alchemist does not belong to me, and it never will. But I can still dream.
Summary: This is a story about an original character, but there will be as many cameos and appearances as I can possibly fit in, believe me. To fully understand this, you will want to have watched the whole series and probably the movie (Conqueror of Shamballa) as well, though I am redoing the whole time period in which the movie takes place, and there will be major differences. In fact, pretend the movie didn't happen. Thanks for reading, please review, and please enjoy!
Tale of the Blade Alchemist
Prologue
Standing outside the office, she put a few strands of dark brown hair behind her ear, and looked down at her short gray hooded jacket with the sleeves short enough to show her freckled arms, and the shining silver bracelet on her right arm, inscribed with an intricate circle design.
Her eyes, a clear shade of grass-green, scanned the hallway, which was devoid of anyone but a man in a standard blue uniform, scratching his head and puffing on a cigarette that looked glued to his lips. Am I really here? Central Military Headquarters, outside the Fuhrer's office, about to sell my soul?
She smoothed her skirt self-consciously, and looked back down at the bracelet, thinking about the design on it, about how harmless it looked. She had long since stopped believing that alchemy was fun, an innocent—useful—pleasure that would earn her praise from parents and strangers. She had learned that it was a dark, rough art, and dangerous in itself. She had learned by experience that people looked with fear when an alchemist was about, and that it was not really a marketable skill, unless one became a State Alchemist and received grants for research every year.
She knew now that the most important parts of life—family, love, friendship—could not be fixed by any special power, any kind of alchemy. The door beside her opened and a blonde woman walked out, giving the girl a cursory glance. A voice from inside said rather casually, "Come in."
She turned to go in, nerves still jangling from her earlier thoughts. But she kept her mind on the fact that had driven her for five years, and that had brought her from the ruins of her family's home in the North to the Fuhrer's office in Central. The truth she had repeated to herself since she was eleven years old:
There was only one thing keeping Olivia Hardwin from settling down and getting a job somewhere where she could make friends and forget the past, and alchemy be damned.
And that…was him.