Disclaimer: I'm not Hiromu Arakawa, so obviously I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood nor its predecessor. If I had, we would've gotten more Kimblee!
Oh god, it actually physically hurts me to post this! Seriously, I'm cringing so hard right now I'm probably gonna give myself spinal damaged. I mean, fuck! Another SI/OC fic! What the hell is wrong with me?! I was honestly really upset with myself for starting another story. But this idea wouldn't leave me the hell alone until I wrote it down.
I must admit I have a sort of grudging pride in the plot. There are lots of OC-based Fullmetal Alchemist fics, and a good portion of those are Self-Inserts where the character is a fan from our world and crosses the Gate to enter the FMA one. I have chosen to do the same, but in a manner that's rarely been done before. I won't explain how exactly, I just ask you to give this a chance. FYI, my OC's name Irena is pronounced I-ree-nah
To make things implicitly clear, this storyline follows the manga/Brotherhood verse, though I will make references to the original anime and may even take some things from it.
Chapter 1: …And Effect
Monroe jolted awake with a gasp, her breathing frantic as she scrambled to sit up. Something horrible had happened and it sent her heart racing with fear. Her shaking hands scrambled for purchase, finding only a cold floor beneath her with something wet marring it. Whatever the stuff was, it coated her fingers and she instinctively rubbed her hands against her thighs as she frantically looked around. It was dark, but if she focused hard enough, Monroe could make out subtle shapes, but what she saw didn't make sense. Still somewhat out of breath, she blinked uncomprehendingly at the bars less than six feet from her.
She was… in a jail cell? How the hell did she get here? Quickly pulling herself onto her feet, Monroe stumbled, her back crashing into a wall as her head pounding something awful. Oh god, it felt like the worst hangover ever! Was that how she got here? Did she do something stupid or illegal while drunk? How much did a person have to drink to have no memories from the night before? Shit, if her family found out about this, they'd never let her live it down.
"Hey, Irena, you alright?!" A voice, male, called anxiously from somewhere outside her cell. "What fuck was that, huh?!" Monroe hesitated. She didn't know who this guy was, but he sounded really concerned over this Irena chick. Ugh, it didn't matter. She had to get the hell outta here! Wasn't she supposed to get a phone call? Or did she use that lifeline when they brought her in last night? "Answer me Irena!" Her head gave a vicious throb in response.
"Sorry, um, whoever you are, but could you please lower the volume? I've got a killer headache." Monroe asked tentatively, and was instantly made aware of how sore her throat was and how strange her voice sounded. It was as if she'd screamed herself hoarse. She hoped she hadn't been shouting nonsense or her deepest darkest secrets throughout the night. Not only would that be super embarrassing, it probably hadn't endeared her to the other inmates. After a long moment, Monroe squirmed in the darkness, anxious by the lack of response. Somehow, the silent atmosphere felt too intense, too eerie. 'Wouldn't be so creepy if they turned on the fucking lights.' She thought irritably. Seriously, why was it so dark?
"What the hell do you mean "whoever you are?!"" A new person, a woman this time, yelled shrilly. Maybe that was Irena? "Is that supposed to be a joke?!" Monroe swallowed nervously at the woman's furious tone, her mouth feeling uncomfortably dry. Jesus, when was the last time she drank anything besides the gallons of alcohol that got her into this mess? Again, she had no answer to her own question and she clenched her fists. She was honestly starting to get a little freaked out with her lack of memories. Were blackouts normally like this?
"I'm really sorry." Monroe said with an apologetic grin that she doubted anyone could see. She tried to keep her tone friendly; she didn't want to set the woman off again. "But I– I don't know what's going on. Where are we?" She didn't mention the hangover. Maybe she'd already been passed out when they brought her in?
"Where are– We're in a fucking military lab! The same place we've been for the past– What, two years now? Three? Hell if I know! It's hard to keep track of time when you become a lab rat!" The man shouted incredulously.
"What?!" She exclaimed, feeling suitably frightened. Lab rat? What the hell did he mean by that?! And she sure as fuck hasn't been here for two years… has she? No, no, that was impossible! Monroe ran a shaking hand through her hair, grimacing as her fingers met with stringy, greasy locks. Shit, that meant she hadn't bathed in a while, right? Could the guy be telling the truth?
Truth.
Her shoulders hunched up instinctively, the hair on her arms standing on end for some reason. Why did that feel so familiar, so foreboding? It was like an uncomfortable itch at the back of her skull, spawning that unique sensation of forgetting something important. Her head gave another brutal throb and Monroe bit her lower lip, withholding a pained whimper in the back of her throat.
"Irena, what's the last thing you remember?" A deeper male voice muttered, and it suddenly dawned on Monroe that this man, and the others as well, were addressing her. Had she told them her name was Irena while she was drunk? Or had they come up with that name on their own?
"W-Why do you keep calling me that?" She stuttered weakly instead of answering.
Monroe lowered herself to the floor, bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. She was starting to feel ill, but it wasn't the type of nausea she usually got from a hangover, which was strangely absent not that she thought about it. No, her current gut churning came from fear, from overwhelming confusion. God, blackouts were a horrible experience. She wasn't even a heavy drinker, so how did this happen? Did somebody roofie her?! Did they drug her?! Kidnap her?!
The silence that followed her question was more overbearing than the first one. It was ended abruptly as a different person, male again, but with a higher pitched voice, gave a wail from further away from her cell. The sound made Monroe flinch as her own eyes burned with the urge to cry. What was going on, damnit?!
"Just fucking stop it, Rena!" The woman screamed, startling her to the point that she edged away from the bars.
"Martel–" The deep-voiced man muttered, only to be drowned out by the woman's reply.
"No! No! She can't just– Fuck, Roa! People don't just lose their memories in a handful of seconds!" The woman sounded almost hysterical and it did nothing to ease Monroe's growing panic.
"It's 'cause she did something!" The first man added just as frantically. "What did you do Rena?! You did alchemy, right?! What'd you do?!" As the man continued to shout, the woman quickly joining him, entirely new voices called out, and the sobs from further down only grew louder. Monroe covered her ears to block out the uproar and pressed her face into her knees. Needless to say, the cacophony of noise did nothing to help her headache.
Alchemy. The man had said she did alchemy.
It was like a puzzle piece clicking into place. Two different lines of thought burst forth from her mind. The first felt natural, like those word association games that psychiatrists used. Alchemy, Fullmetal Alchemist, the manga, the two anime shows, and then a roster of names of the characters she liked and despised, of story arcs, and plot twists.
On the other side of that scale though, Monroe was bombarded by an overflow of knowledge that she hardly recognized. The Law of Equivalent Exchange, in order to obtain or create something, something of equal value must be lost or destroyed. The Law of Conservation of Mass, which states that energy and matter can neither be created from nothing nor destroyed to the point of elemental nonexistence. The Law of Natural Providence, which states that an object or material made of a particular substance or element can only be transmuted into another object with the same basic makeup and properties of that initial material.
One side of her brain argued that alchemy wasn't really. It was a practice that was abandoned centuries ago. Fuck, plenty of alchemists had thought that drinking mercury would lead to immortality for Christ sake! Yet the other side knew alchemy was real with unshakable certainty. Monroe was sure that if she drew a transmutation circle and clapped her hands, she would get a reaction. The two sides of her brain fought for dominance as she struggled to accept that they were both truths.
Truth.
There it was again, that ominous feeling in the back of her mind. She reached for it, ignoring the screaming and squabbling outside her cell, and her face scrunched up with effort. 'Think, think! Truth, why is that word so important?' And like a dam giving way, the memory slammed into Monroe like a crushing, suffocating tidal wave.
Everything was so white. The ground, the sky, and everything in between. It was like a bright void, an unpainted background, an anti-blackhole. It would have been extremely disconcerting if Monroe's attention wasn't already fixed on the figure sitting in front of her.
It had the shape of a human being, a woman judging by its curves, but that was all there was. There was no skin, just more stark white. Like snow or paper. She, It, had no facial features, no eyes, nose, ears, mouth, or hair. Black outlined its body, like fuzzy manifested shadows. It was the only thing that made the creature stick out against their white surroundings.
"Who–" She started, only to stop as the strange creature smiled at her. Its mouth appeared out of nowhere, as if someone had just drawn the feature on. A seam-like line coming into existence before it stretched unnaturally. Its mouth was too wide for Its face, the individual teeth outlined in a grey sketchy affect that reminded her of charcoal drawings.
"Ah-ah, we've already gone over this." The creature said,Its voice echoing oddly. It sounded like three different people were speaking at once. A child, a woman, a man.
"…Truth?" Monroe asked in disbelief and the being nodded at her, never losing Its disturbing grin. She shook her head, frowning as it pounded painfully in response. "I'm– I have to be dreaming…" She muttered to herself and Truth laughed, which was a chilling sound.
"You're not dreaming." It denied, but Monroe didn't put much stock in Its words. "So, how was it?" She tilted her head in confusion, idly noting that her subconscious had done an amazing job. The dream was so real, it was surreal.
"How was what?" Truth pointed at her, or rather, behind her. She whirled around, gaping at the giant floating gateway with wonder. It was… actually really detailed, but the mural carved onto the doors was not what she'd been expecting.
Like other fans who obsessed over their favorite shows a little too much, Monroe had learned that the inscription on the Gate varied for different characters. For Ed, it was something dubbed the Tree of Life. Al's had been some kind of alchemy equation that existed in the real world, while Mustang's had been the Flame Alchemy array. Hers looked like the multi-string theory example her science teacher had shown her back in tenth grade. One earth rested near the top of the Gate, with over a dozen lines spreading downwards and outwards to alternate earths. She looked back at the Truth, frowning heavily.
"I went through the Gate?" She asked skeptically and It nodded at her.
"Of course, all those who tread in God's domain, who break the Laws of Equivalent Exchange, pass through it." She took a step away from the… deity, wary of how Its impossibly wide smile broadened even further.
"…I-I don't remember that." Monroe answered hesitantly.
"You will once you leave this place." It said nonchalantly and she nodded slowly, her eyes darting to the Gate once more as sweat began gathering on her forehead. She knew what came next.
"So, what's my Toll?" She asked nervously before quickly reminding herself that this was a dream. Whatever happened next wasn't real.
"You've already paid it." Monroe blinked at Truth once, twice.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Your Toll, it was your place in this world."
"My place? What does that mean?" The words had just barely left her lips when the Gateway behind her suddenly opened with a heart-shuddering creak. She didn't even have time to step away or turn around before a dozen, tiny hands wrapped themselves around her body. "Wait, what does that mean?!" She shouted, struggling against the inky limbs that dragged her away. "What's going on?!"
"Do not despair, Ms. Anomaly. This was what you wanted, wasn't it?"
"Enough!" A booming yell, got everyone's attention. Monroe came out of the memory shaking and fighting the urge to scream. She dug her nails into her palms and flinched when they easily broke the skin. Not a dream. This was not a dream! How was this not a dream?! "Enough." The deep voiced man repeated himself, sounding exhausted. "Irena," It sounded like the guy was in the cell right across from hers. "we call you that because it's your name."
She gave a shuddery exhale before breathing in through her nose in an attempt to calm her nerves. A smell she hadn't registered before, was suddenly too potent, and she coughed, nearly gagging at the thick metallic odor.
"Ugh, what is that?" She muttered as she pinched her nose shut.
"What's what?!" The first man asked shakily.
"That smell. It's horrible." Silence again. Monroe was starting to grow exasperated with her new ability to stun the whole room into a hushed state.
"It's–" The woman began haltingly, the anger before replaced with something more grief-like. "It's blood."
"What? Who's hurt?" That had to be a lot of blood if she could smell it from her cell.
"Anita." Came a gruff response from another guy. "They stuffed her in your cell. Bastards couldn't be bothered to take her to her own."
"Ulchi!" The woman hissed furiously and the man, Ulchi, growled in response. The others had said their names before. A Marta and Loa?
"What? Someone's gotta tell her! Or did you plan to let her stumble onto Anita's corpse?!" Monroe gasped, her entire body stiffening. There was a dead person in there with her?! Automatically her eyes searched the floor, and her breath got caught in her throat when she spotted a shadowy lump in the darkness.
"Shut the fuck up, Ulchi!" The first man yelled. "…Rena…" His tone broke and he didn't seem to know what to say. Monroe suddenly found it difficult to blink, but when she did, the outline of Anita's body was seared into the back of her eyelids. "You, you don't r-remember who I am, right?" The man stuttered. "My name's Dolcetto."
"I am Roa." The deep voiced man supplied solemnly, the others quickly following Dolcetto's lead.
"Martel."
"Call me Ulchi."
"Name's Viktor."
"I-I'm B-Bido, Miss I-Irena…" Said the one who'd been crying.
"And I'm Calvin."
Dolcetto, Roa, Martel, Bido.
She knew those names. She had mourned their deaths, back when they'd been animations on her TV screen. Greed's gang from the Devil's Nest, former soldiers turned in chimeras by the military. Fuck! Fuck, this couldn't be happening! This wasn't possible!
"You, Roa, Martel, and me were soldiers injured in Ishval. Viktor was there too, but he served as a doctor. Bido was a civilian causality when the fighting spread through the East." Dolcetto continued, his tone turning bitter and angry. "The military smuggled us down here in secret, reported us as KIA. They picked Anita off the streets, she was homeless, and Ulchi was–"
"I used to be a gun runner. Got caught and was sentenced 20 years in prison. I only spent a year in the joint till I got transferred here." Ulchi cut in, sounding oddly proud of his criminal roots.
"Yeah, well." Dolcetto grumbled, annoyed at the interruption. "The scientists here, they– they've been experimenting on us, using alchemy, and combining us with animals." He paused, lowering his pitch somewhat. "Bido has been here the longest, with you coming in second, Rena."
Monroe buried her face into her hands, resisting the urge to scream. How could she be here, in a fictional world?! Why the hell did they all call her Irena, acting as if they knew her? Why couldn't she remember anything?! None of this was making sense!
"They brought Anita back about an hour ago. You tried to help her, to stop the bleeding." She pulled back her hands, staring at them unseeingly. That's what that wet stuff had been! She furiously rubbed her hands against her pants again, morbidly wondering how much blood was on her. "But whatever those bastards did to her, it killed her. You– you went really quiet until a few minutes ago. Y-you said you were gonna try something stupid and dangerous, but that it might get us out of here. The hallway lit up and now you don't–" He stopped and she impatiently waited for him to continue.
"Now you don't remember things." Roa finished lowly. "For a moment, I could see into your cell, when you activated your alchemy." The ox chimera sounded pained. "The light turned from blue to a dark purple and I thought–" He hesitated, his voice dropping. "I thought I saw a giant… eye appearing under Anita's body… and then you– It was like you were breaking apart." No one spoke after Roa's ominous confession, but Monroe stared wide-eyed into the dark.
"…Human Transmutation…" She whispered, another puzzle piece sliding into place. But that didn't mean the overall picture was getting any clearer.
"What?" Martel asked quietly. She blinked before realizing that, of course the others heard her, most of their senses were heightened thanks to their animal halves. She swallowed dryly.
"I think– No, I'm certain of it. What Roa described, it was Human Transmutation."
"Y-You t-tried t-t-to bring M-Miss Anita b-back?" Bido asked, once again sounding close to tears, and Monroe shook her head before remembering that the others couldn't see her.
"No, it's impossible to bring the dead back to life." Was that what Truth meant when it said that the Toll was her place in the world? Had she taken Irena's body? How? It's not like alchemy existed in her world. And why her? Was she just plucked from obscurity by chance? Fuck, this sounded like an otaku's shitty fanfiction!
"You said that you'd probably get hurt pretty badly." Dolcetto added in a low, thoughtful mumble. "Joked about maybe missing a limb or two… or that you might go blind." Her mind whirled. Did that mean Irena knew what she was doing all along? Had she known, that if she survived, she would've gotten better alchemy skills out of it? Had Anita's death been the final straw, the trigger for a desperate bid at escape?
"…People who perform Human Transmutation are punished in accordance to their sins." Monroe announced roughly, thinking about the punishments the characters had been given. A leg to stand on and losing the only family he had left was Ed's price. A body for Al, because he'd craved his mother's hugs more than anything. Blindness for Mustang, who had a vision of a better world. And Izumi, the mother of a stillborn, left unable to ever have a child. "For example, someone who might be a brilliant artist, would likely lose their hands or eyesight."
"Poetic justice." One of the men, Viktor maybe, muttered darkly while Dolcetto gave a muffled curse in the background. "So you lost your memories?"
"I guess." She answered lowly, though Monroe had her doubts. Her theory was that she must've switched bodies with this Irena person. 'We both lost our places in our worlds.' But if this was Brotherhood, like she suspected, then wouldn't her soul eventually start to reject this body. When that happened, would she return to her own body? Or would her soul be stuck at the Gate forever, trapped in some sort of limbo?
"Why did you fucking do this then, huh?!" Martel screamed suddenly, breaking the quietness that had settled over them. "What did throwing away your memories get you?!"
"What did it get me?" She repeated softly as she stared down at her hands. If she got the same thing everyone did going through the Gate, maybe she could–
Searching through her mind, a flood of information about alchemy came rushing forwards. Monroe clapped her hands together before slamming them down on the ground. 'Alchemy is the science of comprehension, deconstruction, and reconstruction. So, step one, what's the ground made of?' It felt like concrete against her skin. 'Calcium. Iron. Carbon.' She knew water was an important ingredient. 'So, oxygen and hydrogen too.' She hoped she wouldn't need to know all of its elements to make this work. 'Step two, break it down.' The iconic ring of a transmutation activating echoed throughout the air and Monroe stared at the display, stunned.
Holy shit! She was doing it! She was really doing alchemy!
A grin spread across her face as she looked up, wondering if she could see some of the others now, what with the light that sparked from the ground. Her gaze immediately landed on the body of a woman, Anita, only a few feet away. She stopped breathing. The scientists must've made a mistake when they were turning Anita into a chimera. Her limbs were bulging, twisted, misshapen. One of the woman's feet was entirely replaced with a hoof. And–
And encircling Anita's mutilated body was a transmutation circle drawn in blood.
Monroe faltered, her hands automatically flying towards her mouth as bile gathered at the back of her throat. Too late did she realize her mistake though. She'd gotten distracted, she'd stopped at the stage of deconstruction, and the ground in front of her exploded. She gave a strangled gasp of surprise as small pieces of shrapnel pelted her and the blast knocked her backwards.
"Irena!" Roa shouted, his voice accompanied by the other chimeras. Monroe coughed and groaned, trying to banish the image of Anita's corpse from her mind with little success. "Irena, are you alright?!"
"I'm… I'm fine." She answered thickly, trying not to heave. The wind had been knocked out of her, she could practically feel the bruises on her back and forearms beginning to from, while some abrasions marred her hands, but that was about it. It could've been a lot worse. She had to stay focused on her transmutations or she could very well blow up her own hands. Well, Irena's hands. "I– I need to try that again." This time when she stood up, she walked past Anita's body, deciding to transmute the bars to her prison instead.
"What just happened?" Dolcetto asked, sounding agitated. "I mean, I know your shitty at alchemy, but I'm pretty sure it's never literally blown up in your face before." Monroe mentally filed Irina's apparent deficiency away for now and instead focused on trying to figure out what the metal bars were made of.
"Hey, how can you know any of that alchemy stuff when your memories were taken?" Ulchi asked from somewhere further off.
"It's one of the few benefits of performing Human Transmutation." She answered distractedly. "It gives the person knowledge in exchange for whatever Toll they paid. I just lost a good portion of my memories, so I'm pretty sure I just went from shitty to exceptional. But I didn't lose all my memories. I still know that two plus two equals four. That our warmongering Führer is named Bradley. That we breathe oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide." Monroe explained, more than a little relieved to find that none of her own memories were missing. She could fully recall her life, the things and people in it. It was Irena's life that was an unknown. "It was my personal memories that were taken. Who I am, the people I knew, my relationships, my history." She paused as she clapped her hands, narrowing her eyes thoughtfully. "But besides the massive dose of info, Human Transmutation does something else." Her hands slammed against the metal bars, which began curling away like melting plastic. "And that's the ability to perform alchemy without a transmutation circle."
And if this really was Brotherhood, that painted a very big target on her back.
Blue light, sparks and energy from her transmutation, lit up the area, letting her finally get a good look at her surroundings. Outside her tiny prison was a rectangular room, with a total of five cells lining up each side. Her own cell was closest to the door, which was to her left.
"What are you doing?" Martel asked in a harsh whisper, her voice wavering. Monroe peered at her through the darkness, the snake chimera was three cells down on the opposite side of the hall. She could see the outline of Martel's body, but not much else.
"What the hell does it look like?" She growled back rhetorically. Like fuck she was gonna stay here and be some sick bastard's experiment. She didn't care if it screwed up canon. Hell, her being here already put the storyline at risk.
There were only supposed to be four Sacrifices, which would lead to Pride forcing Mustang to perform Human Transmutation on the Promised Day. That was the sole reason why Father and the Homunculi had spared the Colonel and his men for so long. If they found out about her, they'd have no reason to blackmail Mustang like in the series, they'd just kill him like they did Maes. On the other hand, Mustang shouldn't lose his eyesight now. Of course, that was on the assumption that she was still around when the Promise Day arrived.
"Fuck yeah!" Ulchi shouted excitedly. "We're busting out!"
"It's about goddamn time." Viktor added gruffly. Monroe walked over to Roa's cell, and glanced up at the man's silhouette. He was tall, ridiculously so. She'd put him at seven feet easy. Taking a calming breath, she replicated the same process she used to warp her own bars on his. Blue light flashed, and for a few seconds she got a clear view of the man.
Roa's skin was a few shades darker than a tan, with long grey hair spilling far past his shoulders. He had very narrow eyes, which she knew had usually been drawn closed in the anime and manga. For a split second, Monroe got a good look at his irises though, and she was only half-surprised to find that they were red. It had been a fan theory that Roa had Ishvalan roots, what with his dark skin and white-ish hair. 'Huh, guess that's one headcanon confirmed.' The clothes he wore seemed to be a plain cotton shirt and pants. They were yellowed, dirty, and bloodstained. He was muscular too, though not nearly as much as he'd been in the show, and his face looked hollowed out.
Once the transmutation ended, she stepped aside to let him through and cautiously explored the state of her own body. She could feel each rib through her shirt, she was likely wearing am outfit similar to Roa's, and her stomach was concave. Her hips jutted out unnaturally, her wrists felt too thin, but she discovered that she had some muscles on her too. She shouldn't be surprised. The scientists were depraved enough to experiment on human beings, why would starving them be out of bounds? Now that she wasn't stressing over her situation of existing in an anime-cum-alternate reality, Monroe was suddenly very aware of hungry she was.
She mutely watched as Roa fumbled his way through the opening, waving his arms in front of his face as though he couldn't see. She offered a hand, which startled him for a second, but he took it. His hand was massive, nearly double the size of her own, and heavily calloused.
"Lift your foot up more." Monroe alerted him, seeing as he was about to stub his toes on one of the bars. She wondered if his bad vison had anything to do with his age. While nothing had ever been confirmed, she'd always felt Roa was the oldest chimera in Greed's gang. "How much can you see?" She asked once he was out and he shrugged.
"It's pitch black. I can't see anything."
"Seriously?"
"Oh, I get it." Dolcetto muttered from behind them, his cell being right next to hers. She could see that he was leaning against the bars, his arms looped through them. "You can see, right?" She nodded.
"Yeah. I mean, it's still really dark in here, but I can make out shapes and stuff."
"That's thanks to the animal they combined you with." Dolcetto explained and Monroe felt her breathing hitch. Christ, why hadn't that occurred to her? Everyone else was a chimera, why wouldn't Irena have been one too? "From what you've said before, your vision has gotten a lot sharper. You've gained a stronger sense of smell, though not as good as mine. Your hearings a bit better too…" He trailed off for a moment before continuing in a more subdued tone. "Uh, you've also gotten more violent, and, er, you eat a lot more." The uncertainty in his voice led her to believe there was more to it, but she wasn't sure she was up for hearing it right now.
"Fuck, what'd they combined be with? A wolf?" She hissed angrily, barely resisting the urge to bury her face in her knees again.
"Nah, I'm the one who's part canine." Dolcetto huffed. "They fused me with a dog."
"You're part weasel." Roa provided and her head shot up.
"A fucking rodent?!" She whined incredulously, ignoring the few snickers from the others. "Why couldn't I get stuck with something cool, like a jaguar!" She sighed heavily. "Shit, fine. Who else can see in the dark?" She asked as she moved to the cell next to Roa's where a tall figure, though he was about a head shorter than Roa, stood.
"Me." Ulchi answered from the cell. "I was mixed with a crocodile, so I can see a lot of shit in this darkness." As her alchemy activated, she took stock on his appearance. Pale skin, grey eyes, shaggy white blonde hair that had areas of bald spots, but instead of skin, there were patches of dark green scales scattered across his scalp. Perhaps his most intimidating feature was his smile, which was full of abnormally sharp teeth. Ulchi was broad-statured like Roa, though the lack of food had taken its toll on him as well, leaving him much too boney in the face. He was also missing the shirt to his prisoner uniform. There were several scars and healing bruises sprawled across his torso, shoulders, and arms.
Was Irena's body riddled with those kinds of marks too?
"I-I can see t-too, Miss I-Irena. M' p-part l-lizard." Bido stammered, his soft voice coming from one of the cells just behind her. She moved onto the next cell, where Martel waited, impatiently tapping her foot. She seemed to be a little shorter than Irena.
"They combined me with a snake. I may not be able to see in the dark, but I have no problem maneuvering through it." She offered as Monroe started to transmute her free. Martel had tannish skin, and blonde hair that reached a little past her shoulders. Her eyes were a pretty dark green, her lips full, but chapped and bitten raw. There was no tattoo marring her skin like in the anime. She was too thin, much like everyone else, but it looked more worrying in comparison to the men.
"Can't snakes scent the air with their tongues?" The weasel chimera asked and the woman shrugged.
"Yeah, but I can't do it. Those bastards already checked. I just know where other people are in the dark. It's like a sixth sense or something." She was about to move on to the next cell, but stopped as Martel grabbed her arm. "Nobody's in the next two cages." The snake chimera said curtly. "Go to the other side." Sensing that there was more behind that statement, but deciding not to ask, Monroe did as she was told.
"My vision is about as good as Roa's." The man inside, Calvin, stated in a genial tone. "He and I were combined with farm animals. Lucky bastard got an ox while I got stuck with a rooster." He lamented while crossing his arms. Calvin seemed to be about a head taller than her. The discharge from her transmutation revealed he had wavy ginger hair, which was long and just as dirty as everyone else's, with brown eyes, a thick beard, and pinkish skin with a sprawl of freckles dotting his sharp cheekbones. Just like the others, he was lean and underfed, wearing the same stained cotton uniform. "Much appreciated, sweetheart." The man uttered as he stepped out of his cell.
Bido was next. She could tell because she could see his tail, though he was hunched in on himself, making him look shorter than he already was. Monroe consciously forced herself not to react once she got a clear view of him. His skin was a light gray, dappled with spots of various sizes colored in darker shades of gray. He was bald, his nose much too large to be normal, with beady black eyes. She guessed he was about a head shorter than her, and so thin without the muscle mass that everyone else seemed to have maintained. Finally, there was his tail, which was at least half as long as his overall height.
"T-Thank y-you Miss I-Irena." He mumbled stutteringly as he rushed forwards to get out of the cell, stumbling a little over his feet. How difficult was it for him to walk with that tail?
"Sure thing, Bido." She replied gently, remembering that he was one of the more emotional chimeras. The next cell, which had to be Viktor's by default, was transmuted away within seconds. Viktor was bald too, with a thick scar that extended from the top of his head down to the ridge of his right eyebrow in a straight line. He had tanned skinned, and like Bido, lacked a toned figure. He had pale blue eyes and was a little bit shorter than Calvin. When she freed him, he merely grunted, stumbling somewhat as he walked forwards.
"I'm part turtle. Not that it fucking matters." The man grumbled without preamble and Calvin chuckled.
"Don't mind the Doc here, he's always this grumpy."
"I'll smile as much as you fucking want if we actually manage to get out of this shithole." The turtle chimera muttered sourly.
"I'll hold you to that promise."
"Yeah, yeah. Stop with the yacking and let's get outta here already." Dolcetto barked from where he paced behind his bars and Monroe wordlessly set him from. The dog chimera was shorter than herself, he likely matched Martel's height, and had dark brown hair that she'd nearly mistaken as black. He had hazel eyes, pale skin, and like the other soldiers, some lingering muscles to compensate for his gauntness. "Thanks Rena!" He clapped a hand on her shoulder as he stepped away, but paused to look back. "Hey, do you think you could transmute one of those metal bars into a sword? I'd feel better making our escape if I had a weapon."
"Good idea." Martel added. "I wouldn't say no to a dagger or two."
"I do my best work with a gun," Calvin remarked, "but I'm not too shabby with a lance either."
"Rifle for me!" Ulchi shouted gleefully.
"I'm no fighter and neither is Bido." Viktor muttered while lizard chimera nodded in agreement. "We'll only get in your way."
"That's fine. Just stay at the back of the group and keep an eye out for any guards or scientists." Roa stated from the head of the group. "If you can manage it Irena, I'd appreciate a warhammer."
"Right, that shouldn't be too hard. One order of weapons coming right up." Fortunately, it wasn't hard at all. The metal bars shifted into the exact shapes Monroe envisioned within seconds of each transmutation. For Dolcetto he got a katana, which he gave a few tests swings before deeming it awesome. Martel got a pair of curved daggers, which the woman had grinned over, looking rather creepy. The pair sacrificed a sleeve each so that she could transmute cloth wrappings around the hilts per Dolcetto's request.
She made an attempt at producing a gun and was pleasantly surprised to find a steel gray pistol in her hands. Calvin immediately demanded a sniper rifle instead, which she had to adjust a little when she initially made the barrel too short. There was nothing she could do for the scope seeing as she lacked any sort of materials to make a magnifying glass. From there, she made several bullets to his specifications. After that, Ulchi got his rifle, which needed its own ammo, who also asked for a pair of brass knuckles in case he ran out of ammo.
With Roa, she got a bit more creative, making the staff of his Warhammer hollowed metal, while using the concrete as the head so that he wasn't over-unencumbered. The man may be a giant, but he was also weakened from their imprisonment. For Viktor and Bido, she transmuted them each a short knife for protection. Just in case.
Monroe hesitated, wondering what she should transmute for herself. Did Irena have any sort of weapon's training, and had that factored over to her like alchemy had? She searched her mind, and the first thing she found was some knowledge on gun maintenance, which quickly bleed into gun safety, the proper way to hold a gun, aiming, the recoil, reloading. She frowned and shook her head while giving the handgun a calculating stare. She'd never shot anyone before, and she had no desire to start now, but she was prepared to do it if her life was on the line. As she transmuted her own bullets, she tried to dig up any other combat training Irena might've had, and was pleased to find extensive firsthand experience in hand-to-hand combat.
"Alright, so how do we do this?" Monroe asked, seeing a few silhouettes shift towards her. "Are we taking the stealthy approach and quietly sneaking our way out? Or are we doing this loud and messy?"
"I wouldn't say no to killing every son of a bitch in this place." Ulchi snarled as he repositioned his rifle.
"But we can't forget about our inexperienced companions, no?" Calvin added gamely. "You Amestrians are always so quick to violence. I vote for stealth." Wait, Calvin was a foreigner?
"Last time I checked Amestris wasn't a democracy, Cretan." Martel bit back, though she sounded more irritated than mad.
"No, it's a dictatorship that experiments on its wounded soldiers." He replied, just as scathingly, before sighing. "What would you propose, Dolcetto?"
"Personally, I'd liked to see this building burnt to the ground with the scientists still inside it." The dog chimera growled. "If we escape and do nothing to stop these assholes, then they'll just keep on doing this shit to others. I don't want anyone else to go through what we did." A heavy silence followed his statement, and Monroe resisted the urge to shift guiltily.
These characters, these people, had been tortured. They'd literally had their humanity ripped away from them. They were victims and they were dangerous. She wasn't like them. She wasn't a veteran or a lab rat. She hadn't been dehumanized and experimented on, that was Irena. And while she could understand their vendetta from an outsiders' perspective, she herself did not feel that same burning desire for vengeance.
"Okay, so we take the whole operation out. Then what?" Viktor asked after a long moment.
"That depends on where this place is located." Monroe muttered distractedly as she resisted the urge to fiddle with her gun. The manga and Brotherhood never stated where the chimeras had come from, how they'd escaped, or even when they'd joined up with Greed. So she had no idea where they were.
Was this place the 5th Laboratory, like in the first anime, located somewhere in Central City? She doubted it. The others had come to the decision to destroy this place on their own, so that had to be canon, right? Unless… unless Greed had been the one to break them free. Was that how the Devil's Nest gang was supposed to meet? Would Greed have smuggled them away, no muss, no fuss? He wouldn't have destroyed Lab 5, right? That would've attracted the attentions of Father and the Homunculi. And if this was the 5th Lab, and they did destroy it, what would that mean for the storyline? Did she just royally fuck everything up by breaking them out?
Argh, this was so confusing! She had too many questions and not enough answers. She didn't even know where there were in the timeline! She was certain Ed and Al hadn't discovered the truth behind the Philosopher Stone yet, but that left such a large window. Were they at the beginning of the anime, or years before it? Was Ed already a State Alchemist? Had the boys tried to bring their mother back yet?
"What do you mean, Rena?" Martel asked, and Monroe pushed aside her convoluted musings. She couldn't know anything for certain until they got out of here. She might be worrying over nothing.
"Well, where is this place? Are we in a city? Because burning this building to ashes would attract a lot of attention. What if we're in Central?" She began tensely. "I for one don't want the military bearing down on us from the get-go. I'd like at least a day's head start on them."
Even if this was the 5th Laboratory, she supposed she shouldn't be too worried. On the grand scale of things, not much happened here. Ed and Al fought the Slicer Brothers and Barry the Chopper respectively, then Ed met Lust and Envy, but that was it. He'd already been pretty sure that the 5th Lab was where they created Philosopher Stones, #48 had only confirmed that theory. Ed didn't even learn what Lust and Envy were until Greed spilled the beans later in Dublith. She mentally breathed a sigh of relief. Blowing up Lab 5 shouldn't fuck with canon too badly.
"I suppose it doesn't make much of a difference." She continued, feeling a bit calmer now. "We're definitely destroying this place. But once it all comes crumbling down, we should start running in the opposite direction."
"W-What a-about our f-families?" Bido asked timidly. Monroe stared at him, caught off guard. Families, right. They would all have families, wouldn't they? She hadn't even thought of that.
"I joined the military after my wife died." Roa answered lowly. "I have no family."
"I've got a deadbeat dad who I ran away from as a kid." Dolcetto supplied with a growl. "So yeah, no one's missing me."
"I have a brother who lives in Pendleton. He has a wife and a kid. The last thing I want to do is get them involved." Martel remarked sadly.
"Yeah, I know how you feel." Ulchi added glumly. "I got a little sister studying to be a teacher back home. If anything happened to her, I'd never forgive myself."
"My family's dead." Viktor revealed tersely.
"Sadly my friends, no matter where we go, we will always have the threat of the military hanging over our heads." Calvin stated rather dejectedly. Nobody pointed out to Bido that there was a chance his family might not accept his new form.
"I-I w-wouldn't show m-myself." The smallest chimera whispered, once again huddling in on himself. "I k-know I-I'd give m-ma a heart a-attack. I j-just wanna m-make sure she a-and pa are o-okay." But damn, Bido sounded so… young. How old was he? It was impossible to tell with how he looked. With his raspy tone, she'd always assumed he was in his thirties, but there'd been such a frailness in his voice just now. Like he was still a kid or something.
"Where do they live?" Monroe asked quietly, and he sniffled in a way that made her heart lurch unexpectedly.
"In R-Rayleigh, i-it's a s-small town o-on the b-border of t-the S-South and E-East Areas. W-We were– i-it g-got attacked w-when the w-war i-in Ishval s-spread."
"Would they still be there?" Viktor asked and Bido gave a shaky shrug.
"I-I d-don't know, b-but I have t-to try." The others had nothing to add to that. Not making any promises, but also not refusing his request either.
"…Rena?" Dolcetto began cautiously.
"Yeah?"
"You, uh… well, you have– Ah, fuck, I'm just gonna say it! You've got a family!" Dolcetto proclaimed and Monroe could only stare at him for a long moment.
"I do?" She asked faintly and he nodded.
"Yeah, two nephews and a niece. You said their grandmother started taking care of them after your sister died. You were already fighting in Ishval when she passed away."
"Oh. Okay, that's… shit." She rubbed a hand over her face, thinking. Okay, so Irena had a family, that wasn't too concerning. And it didn't really change anything. Calvin had made a good point; the military was a guillotine that hung over all their necks. "Did I… mention any names? Where they live?"
"No."
"What about a surname? Maybe I could track them down?" She could do that. Occasionally check-in on Irena's family to make sure they were okay. From a distance.
"Rena, I don't even know your last name." The dog chimera revealed apologetically.
"What?" She asked disbelievingly.
"It wasn't something that ever came up." He admitted while wincing at his lackluster explanation.
"So basically, I have a family out there that I'll likely never see again. And even if I do, I won't remember them, which would probably break their hearts. Is that what you're telling me?" Her biting summarization caused more than one chimera to flinch, and she exhaled heavily. "Fuck."
"I'm sorry." Dolcetto offered regretfully. "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything at all–"
"No, you were right to tell me." She interrupted him, not wanting him to feel guilty. If Irena had really lost her memories, instead of them switching bodies, she would've needed to know.
"We've gotten distracted." Roa said after a moment.
"Right, family don't mean shit if we don't get out of here first." Ulchi remarked and Calvin scoffed.
"My, how eloquently put." Monroe may be stereotyping, but was starting to get a French-like vibe from the rooster chimera.
"Enough." Roa, well, he didn't growl exactly, but there was an unmistakable timber of command in his tone. "Dolcetto, Martel, and I will lead the group. Ulchi, Irena, and Calvin will supply support and cover fire. Viktor, Bido, stay away from the action and keep an eye out for hostiles. We'll take the route to the labs and figure our way out from there. If we find any other prisoners, we'll set them free and see if we can't get their help. Kill everyone else." Monroe swallowed thickly and wondered if her shaking hands would affect her aim any. "Irena, can you get the door?"
"A-Ah, yeah, sure." She moved towards it, the others trailing behind her a few feet. It was metal, thick, with bolts running along the edges. It was probably strong enough to withstand a chimera's strength, but that did absolutely nothing against her alchemy. With a clap of her hands, the door was reconstructed, practically dissolving outwards as the metal spread and reformed over the walls.
With the exit opened, light pooled in, and Monroe had to squint at the sudden glare. It wasn't even that bright, merely a faintly flickering two-foot-long fluorescent fixture. It did put into contrast just how dark it must've been before and how improved her eyesight was. She led the way out, stepping into the short hallway, seeing that their only path was an ascending staircase at the opposite end. Once everyone was out, Roa, Dolcetto, and Martel took the lead.
"Everyone ready?" Dolcetto asked as he raised his sword.
"N-Not r-really…" Bido responded, looking and sounding terrified. The swordsman gave a rough laugh while patting the lizard chimera's shoulder.
"Yeah, me neither kid."
Now, choosing Irena's/Monroe's animal-half was not something I took lightly. I found that the most common OC chimeras are those fused with cats, wolves, panthers, etc. I wanted to be outside the norm, but I also wanted her animal-half to be a badass. Enter the weasel, one of the deadliest small predators out there. Don't believe me? Here are some facts about weasels.
Fun Fact #1: They're killing machines. They might have cute little faces, but weasels are also bloodthirsty. It's a matter of necessity: they have super-fast metabolisms and need to kill and eat about half their body weight every day. As a result, they've become fearsome hunters. The weasel corners and grabs its prey, wraps its muscular body around the animal to immobilize it and then delivers a single killing bite to the back of the head, puncturing the skull or spinal cord. You know what other animal kills like that? The jaguar.
Fun Fact #2: The weasel's bloodlust is instinctual and triggered by movement. Even on a full belly, a weasel will kill anything that moves and looks like prey. Tiny weasels have been seen killing and carrying off animals twice, four times, and even ten times their size.
Fun Fact #3: Weasels, stoats, and even domesticated ferrets all perform a hilarious "weasel war dance" when they've got their prey cornered. Scientists aren't totally sure why they do this. One theory is that the weasel's wacky twisting, hopping, and darting around distracts, confuses, or even hypnotizes prey animals. In one case, researchers concluded that a number of rabbits killed by stoats had actually "died of fright" after being subjected to the weasel war dance.
Impressed yet?
–Hexalys