FROM EDEN

Ed knew that to lie to the military and everyone they knew was wrong, that there were other ways to get in, but State Alchemists had resources that enlisted officers did not have - resources that they needed to get their bodies back. So, she would just have to pretend to be a boy and become a State Alchemist.

For AsiaMoonfield.
Happy belated 18th and 19th, Kishia.

Three things:

1. This isn't religious despite the scripture at the beginning; I just thought it fits the theme of both series. Granted, I was tempted to because the lack of showing both sides to religion still bothers me (seriously, if you're going to introduce controversial topics then, for Pete's sake, show both sides, otherwise it just feels like you're shoving your worldview down someone's throat), but I decided not to because it wouldn't fit. And the whole thing is from Ed's point of view, who very clearly doesn't believe in God or some higher deity. (Unless Truth counts. And that's a can of worms I didn't want to open...)

2. This was supposed to be short. As in, 3000-6000 words long short. Instead, it's 25,000 words long. Unedited. So I split it up into six (or seven) parts because it's not stopping.

3. I wanted RoyEd. It didn't happen after I remembered that (s)he is only 11-16 in the series. Ugh. So, it's just... heavily implied. Like Edwin is. So read into that as much as you'd like - I left the pairings vague on purpose. Also, this is Kishia's very, very belated 18th birthday present. (She's 19. .) Hopefully, the wait was worth it?

The serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden?'"

The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees bin the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman, "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." - Genesis 3:1-5

[1]

"Hey, Alphonse?" Ed said eventually without looking up from the book she was reading. It was one of her better days, where the newly installed automail ports weren't horribly painful, and she wasn't in some fever-ridden haze. "Do you think the Lieutenant Colonel noticed...?"

She heard something like metal scraping against metal, like Al had shifted, and it reminded her so much of how this was her fault, all her fault, he shouldn't be in that body and she had to fix it—

The pause lengthened until she thought that Al might not reply to her question, but that wasn't in Al's nature; he had always been kinder than she was. So, Al answered slowly, like he was carefully considering every word he spoke, "I don't he would have suggested you would become a State Alchemist if he had."

Winry would joke occasionally about how Ed was more of a boy than Alphonse was whenever Ed would do something stupid like throw the first punch when the boys would gang up on her in school while Alphonse would try to settle thing peacefully with words rather than fists. It helped that she was rather undeveloped physically as well, she thought—The Lieutenant Colonel probably hadn't expected a girl to have the nerve – or stupidity – to perform Human Transmutation.

Hah. What a joke. She was an idiot any way you sliced it.

"Ed," Winry said, watching as Ed gritted her teeth and limped through the kitchen. "Ed, women aren't allowed to become State Alchemists, let alone when they're twelve years old."

"It's a stupid rule," she said, and she pointed a finger (a flesh one, and it was so strange that she had to make the distinction between metal and flesh now that she constantly kept being thrown off balance by it; but then again, she was used to not being steady at this point, was far too used to her world being ripped out from underneath her feet just when she thought she had found her equilibrium again) at Winry in a vaguely threatening gesture. "Women are way tougher than men anyway. We should be allowed in the military."

Winry moved forward, reached up, and sandwiched her hand in-between hers. "Women are allowed to enlist in the military. Tell him you're a girl, that you can't take the exam to become a State Alchemists. If you're found out, you'll be treated as a traitor to Amestres. You'll be banished at best and executed at worst. It's not worth it, not when I'm sure you can achieve the same goal in another way. You're not above the rules, Ed."

For a moment, Ed wasn't sure how she could respond. She knew Winry; she wouldn't accept anything but the full truth from her - not even a half-truth would satisfy her. And Ed knew that Winry would pester her until she got an answer from her. Besides, Winry wasn't being just stubborn this time. Sure, she was clenching her jaw in the way that Ed was oh so fond of, but Winry's eyes were also bright with something that looked suspiciously like tears and her hands were trembling ever so slightly which was freaking terrifying.

Ed definitely didn't like it when Winry cried; in fact, Winry crying was something she tried to avoid at all costs. She wasn't very good with the mushy-emotional stuff like Alphonse was.

She lifted her heavy metal hand until she could press it against Winry's hand to still its trembling, because metal was easier for her to understand now. Metal was a barrier between her and her feelings. She had no softness to give or pretty words to say like Alphonse or some random girl would. That wasn't her. She was brash and harsh and a despicable human being, because how could she be so arrogant still to think she could make the rules of the universe bend for her, but one thing she was good at was being so blunt that it was offensive.

"State Alchemists have more resources than a regularly enlisted soldier, Winry. I need those resources. And if I have to pretend that I'm a boy to get those resources, and risk being found out... I'm willing to take it. If it helps me get Al his body back, I'm willing to do anything."

Tears overflowed in her powder blue eyes and clung to her eyelashes, and Ed carefully tightened her metal fingers into a squeeze, wishing she was something more comforting than cold metal and hardness, but this was her punishment and she knew she deserved it for attempting the forbidden. Of course she did. But it was moments like this... She hoped that if she started to crush Winry's bones accidentally then she would have the commonsense to tell her to stop.

"Winry..." She wanted to tell her to say something, to tell her how to make her stop crying so much. She didn't know how to deal with Winry when she was like this. Where was Al when she needed him?!

"I still don't think you should do this." Ed frowned, but before she could say something, Winry reached up and blindly slapped a hand over her mouth. "I really, really think that this is going to blow up in your face and something bad is going to happen to you. But, if you feel like this is what you have to do..."

She licked Winry's hand. Winry screeched and frantically wiped her hand against her shirt, slapping her chest hard enough that Ed had to grunt, disgust etched in every line of her face. Ed waited until she was finished before she moved forward and wrapped her arms around her in one of her rare hugs. Winry flailed for a moment before she returned it, still swiping one of hands across her back.

"You are disgusting," Winry said, but her voice was fond this time. "You should learn some manners from Al."

Ed smiled. "I should learn a lot of things from Al," she said softly as she pulled away. Like humility, like listening to people, like a lot of things for sure. "Thanks for understanding."

"Ready, Al?" Ed asked, tilting her head to the side as she smiled wickedly. "I won't go easy on you."

"And neither will I!" Alphonse retorted, swinging one leg out to knock her off balance. She weaved out of the way, pressing her automail foot against the ground and jumping back. She planted her flesh foot on the ground and allowed her momentum to swing around, and her foot crashed against Al's steel armor with a loud clang as he raised his hand to block her blow.

"So," he said casually as he caught her flesh fist before it slammed against his chest. She cringed when it smarted and mentally noted to use her automail fist next time. "What are you going to do about the physical exams?"

"No idea." She grunted and skidded back when she threw her arm back to block a back fist thrown at her side. Dust played at her feet before it settled again; the river had been getting awfully low. "Maybe I'll luck out."

"Ed!" She grinned at his dismay and threw a barrage of back fists and feints at his guard. Alphonse kept up with them, and spoke up again, "Luck is a terrible variable to— to—! There's no way you'll get into the military as a State Alchemist without telling them you're a girl, brother."

"I won't know if I don't try," she sing-sang in response. What she didn't say was that she was nervous; she could be arrested for pretending to be a man (or, well, boy in this instance) if something happened. But still. She needed those resources, if she was to find a way to Alphonse his body back. So she had to try at least, and if something happened, then she would take the fall for it.

He sighed. "I just hope you know what you're doing."

She did too.

"In addition to that, Mr. Tucker has a daughter, who is about to turn four, who lives with him." Mustang said as they got out of the car. Ed frowned slightly; he hadn't mentioned a wife...

"Then he doesn't have a wife?" Alphonse asked, and Ed found herself wincing. She should probably tell Alphonse that it was better to observe when it came to things like that, rather than asking somebody about it.

A strange look crossed Mustang's face, like he was startled or judging them or something. Ed clenched her fists at her sides, silently daring him to say something out loud. But he turned and began to walk to the gates of the mansion. "Here we are."

Of course, of course, as soon as they stepped inside of the ridiculously fancy gated lawn, Ed found that she couldn't move her legs. It was... it was huge. And white. And blinding. The house. Was that even a house? It felt more like a palace than a house to her.

"Wow, it's huge!" She couldn't help but exclaim.

"Incredible, huh, Brother?" Alphonse agreed. Mustang rang the bell and turned to them, a frown appearing on his face again.

"What are you doing? Come over here, quickly!"

They were not supposed to be ogling at the house, Ed remembered. "Oh, right!" She ran toward Mustang, but then she stopped because she heard something like a bush being moved—

She heard the howl of a wolf coming from right ... above ... her ... head. Before she could move, something large and shaggy and white flopped over her, and she let out a yell as it crashed on her.

"B-Brother...?" She heard Alphonse stutter over the whining over the monstrous beast.

"You can't do that, you know, Alexander!" A childish voice scolded and Ed looked up.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The man – the little girl's father, maybe – apologized. Ed blinked. When she had imagined them, she had expected them to be stiff people who looked down on country bumpkins like her and Al, kind of like Mustang. Instead, they were... nice to them. Normal.

"You're ... Tucker?" she choked out, just to clarify.

The tolling of the clock startled Ed away from An Advanced Guide to Alchemic Theory (which was absolutely stimulating even though the title was ridiculously boring) and she listened as it rang once, twice, thrice.

"Oh, no. Is it this late already?" she wondered out loud. She stood up and looked around the library. "Al, where are you?" But he didn't respond. Maybe he was playing outside? It was possible; they had been studying for a while...

"Al?" she called as she opened the door.

"Brother!" Alphonse yelled.

"Little Big Brother, it snowed!"

Ed's jaw dropped as she took in the cold, fluffy white stuff. There was so much of it. Back home, it had only snowed like this once during an unseasonably cold winter when she and Al had been kids.

Maybe she was supposed to act like an adult if she was about to sell her soul to the military, but she didn't care. She grinned and leapt forward, kicking her arms and legs out.

Time blurred and Ed found herself laughing as she collapsed into the snow. Nina flopped down next to her with a giggle, curling against her side. Her back was soaked through, her automail was stealing heat from her body, and her bones were cold, but for once she didn't mind the chill.

"Big Brothers, I wish that you could stay here all the time after you pass your test."

Her laughter caught in the back of her throat and fled. Ed rolled over onto her elbow and studied Nina's withdrawn expression. Living here all alone must get awfully boring...

She grinned and grabbed a piece of wood to draw a transmutation circle into the ground. Nina loomed over her as she sketched the circles into the snow fluidly,

"Big Brother, what are you drawing?" she asked when she was almost done with it. She drew the smaller triangle within the two circles.

She didn't look up as she responded, "It's called a transmutation circle. It's an incantation to get a wish granted." She smiled as she finished it, and caught Nina's eyes briefly before she pressed her hands against the array. "All right! Watch this!"

Impossibly, the smile on Nina's face widened as she finished making the flower crown. "Incredible! Incredible! Big Brother, that was incredible!" she babbled as Ed effortlessly weaved the flowers together into her hair and put it on Nina's head.

"Not bad," a slightly familiar voice said, causing Ed to turn. Square rimmed glasses framed familiar green eyes, and she finally remembered the man's name. He had come into Colonel Mustang's office once, with a stack of pictures, and had talked and talked and talked about his kid. (Ed sort of wished her dad was more like him, but ... well. She didn't like thinking about him very much, if she could help it.)

"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes?" she asked hesitantly, hoping that was his name and hoping even more that she had said the correct rank. Hughes smiled as he waved at them, and she thought that it was a real smile because his eyes closed.

"Hey there! I've come to pick you up for my darling Elica's birthday party. It's your birthday today too, right Ed? We can make it a double celebration."

Ed blinked, a little surprised. She hadn't told anybody about her birthday. Actually, she had forgotten that it was today.

"Now that you mention it..." Alphonse, apparently, had forgotten that it was her birthday today too.

"How would you know something like that?" she wondered out loud, forgetting that it was a slightly rude question, and she had to be polite to these people otherwise they could block her from becoming a State Alchemist. Hughes didn't seem insulted though.

"I am in the research department, you know. Come on, let's go to my house. My wife is waiting." Ed looked back at Nina when her hands fell from the flower crown to her sides. Something like disappoint crossed her face. "You too there, little lady. Go ask your father if you can come. A celebration is more fun if you celebrate it with everyone!"

With the wide smile on Hughes face, and the smile lines prominent around his eyes, Ed decided that he was okay. So she grinned back at him.

"It could be a physical exam or a question and answer session," Alphonse muttered as he paced around and 'round the small room they had staked out the closer they got to the entrance exam and the longer they stayed at Mr. Tucker's mansion. "Ed, there's no way you can risk them finding out that you're a—" He glanced around and lowered his voice, leaning forward. "That you're a girl."

She bit her lip. "Between the two of us, I have the better chance of becoming a State Alchemist... they can't know about your metal body."

Her imagination was only too vivid, a number of scenarios bouncing around in her head. They could dissect him to try to figure out how she attached his soul to his body. Or worse.

His eyes dimmed slightly. "And they can't know about you either, brother. They'll brand you as a traitor to Amestris."

"I don't care about that." She pretended she felt braver than she actually did, putting false bravado into her voice. "If there's a chance this'll work, then I'm going to take it."

He stopped pacing in front of her, and she missed seeing his face. It had been so expressive; she'd been able to tell what he was thinking just by watching the pitch of his eyebrows or the curl of his lips sometimes. Now, his face was blank. There was nothing that she could see that told her what he was thinking.

But that was okay. She'd find another way to read him.

"We justified breaking a taboo because nobody else had been brave enough to do it. What's to say that this isn't another one of those? Why are we allowed to bend the law to do what we need to do? Where is our justification in that?"

She didn't know. But maybe that was because there was none. However, she also didn't care. This was the path they needed to tread. "Trust me," she whispered. Please, just trust me. I don't know what I'm doing but I'll find a way to make it work.

Alphonse sighed. "I do."

"Al... We chose the right path, didn't we?" Ed wondered out loud, late at night after the interview. She stared at the ceiling, still waiting for sleep to come. She wasn't really expecting Alphonse to reply, though she did know that he would listen to her.

"I don't know," he replied, and she looked at him, moving onto her side far enough that she could meet Alphonse's eyes. "But the one thing I am sure about is that I want to touch you once again, Sister." She pushed herself up, and Alphonse's gaze rose minutely. "It's strange. Here we are, always so close to each other, but I can't even remember what it feels to touch you, or the warmth of your body."

She didn't have an answer for that. After all, what could she say to that? She had been the one who had put her little brother into that steel body. She had been the one who insisted that they commit the ultimate taboo. She was the one who should be paying the higher price, it had been her idea to try to bring mom back from the dead, but it had been Alphonse who had paid the heavier toll.

Maybe this wasn't the right path, but it was the one that they had chosen for themselves, so they would make it work. She knew that he didn't agree with her plan, that he thought that she shouldn't try to join the State Alchemist program, but she knew that he would go along with her plan because he trusted her.

At least, she hoped he trusted her.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Ed."

I do know what I'm doing was the first thing she wanted to say, but the words didn't come out. Instead, she settled for, "Me too."

It was the closest thing that felt like she was telling him the truth in a long time.

"Hmm." It might have been funny how such a simple sound could send Ed's teeth on edge. Or maybe it was just the Colonel's smug face that was making her angry. He was a jerk to her, most of the time. One that had taken a child like her to utilize to propel himself through the ranks of the military. But a jerk that she needed to get their bodies back.

She totally wasn't nervous. At all. Not even a little. At least the physical part of the exam had been more along the lines of releasing health records and showing off a little alchemy, and not an actual examination exam of her body. That would have destroyed every shot of becoming a State Alchemist. If she was even smart enough to get in. Which was questionable. Maybe she should have went through the answers a second time? Just to make sure she had gotten them correct? But no, she hadn't even been able to get through to the last question before time had been called. How was she supposed to check her answers?

"The Fuhrer sure gave you an ironic name."

"What?" But she released a sigh of relief, relaxing into Mustang's couch. She had made it. She was a State Alchemist. Mustang held the file folder out to her, rising out of his chair, and she took it from him before they settled back down.

"Nothing." He rested his elbows on the desk and folded his hands, one over the other. "Congratulations, you are now officially the military's dog."

She slid the single sheet of parchment out of the file. It was so light, so easily torn into two pieces, but it held such a heavy weight. "Hmm, this is the contract..." she said half to herself. "It's surprising that it's just one piece of paper for such a high title. 'I, Fuhrer President King Bradly, hereby appoint thou, Edward Elric, as a State Alchemist, and bestow thee with the title "Fullmetal.'" Before she could stop herself, she raised an eyebrow at the title and turned to face the Colonel. "Fullmetal?"

"That's right. It is the second name that's given to all state alchemists. The name that you'll be carrying is 'Fullmetal Alchemist.'"

A smirk curled at her face, and she allowed it to take hold. Delight wormed its way through her and she found herself saying, "I like it. Sounds like something heavy to carry." Determination mixed with the delight and she leaned forward ever so slightly, locking her stare with Mustang's. "But I'll do it. I'll carry it."

The sun was sinking below the horizon, setting the world ablaze with a golden-red glow. The familiar sound of Alphonse's clanking armor was comforting against Nina's soft snoring. She looked at her hands again. So, it hadn't been a fluke; she could transmute like Teacher...

Despite warnings, Icarus had flown too close to the sun, melting his wax wings and plummeting into the sea. Like Icarus, her wings had melted because she had flown too close to the sun and she had come crashing down to the earth. However, unlike Icarus, she would not give up. If she could not fly, then, half-drowned, she would walk. Maybe her legs weren't strong enough to stand on their own strength yet, but she could use these hands to crawl forward.

"Al..." she said slowly, and she stopped. She half turned so that she could look at Alphonse straight in the eye. "I'm going to stop wavering. I'm going to just look straight ahead and race forward. If I dead end, then I'll deal with that then." She smiled, and it felt freeing for some reason, so she held her fist to Alphonse. "Someday, no matter what, I'm going to return you back to the way you were."

She thought that if he could, Alphonse would be smiling as he nodded once. "When you do, Brother, your body will be there with me."

And he bumped his fist against hers, sealing the pact.