This one will likely be rewritten a bit at some point. Based on one of the possible endings of "Mission Objective: Save Nina Tucker" by Adventures-of-You

Alphonse did not trust Shou Tucker. Not one bit. Over time, he'd become very good at "reading" a person's aura, and the Sewing Life Alchemist just…didn't seem right.

His daughter Nina earned the opposite opinion, however. She was just so innocent and sweet! Their dog Alexander enjoyed jumping on Ed, although sometimes he'd look anxiously at wherever Al was…just like Den did, actually.

The Tuckers had a huge mansion, but it was only Nina and her father. That was where it got confusing—they first heard that Shou's wife had died, but then Shou himself said that she left him. Alphonse had brought that up to Ed, who shrugged it off with the reply of "Nina probably wouldn't know how to handle that. Think about it."

His older brother had a point...but it still seemed fishy. The two were out on the front lawn, and Shou was in the basement, preparing for his assessment. Alphonse was looking absently at a family photo, which seemed to have an odd bluish-white film covering it. "Ed?"

"Yeah Al?"

"Can you come inside for a second?"

There was a pause. "Sure. It's about lunchtime, anyways."

A few minutes later, after Ed set up a sandwich for Nina, he came up to where Al was and asked, "What's wrong?"

"That picture. Something's weird about it."

"Weird? What kind of weird?"

Alphonse didn't know how to explain it. But some weird instinct came to him, and he decided to listen to it.

It felt very similar to when the ghost of Winry's dad had temporarily seized control over him, but it wasn't any ghost. No, these were just memories.

Shou was arguing with his wife—

Both were in the basement, and she was lying unconscious on a complex transmutation circle, and only one could be that complex—

And as suddenly as it began, it was over. "Al." Ed's voice was hollow. "Go see what Mr. Tucker's doing, please."

He felt the now-familiar tugging feeling in his chest as his younger brother moved away to see what Shou was doing—and what Alphonse said then only confirmed the cold suspicion Ed had. "He's drawing that same transmutation circle!"

One thing was certain—Nina was not safe here. Rushing into the kitchen, he forcibly put a calm demeanor on and said, "Hey Nina? I just came up with a new game."

She looked up—she'd just finished her lunch. "What kind of game, big brother?"

"Hide-and-seek," he explained, leading her out the front door. Al was close behind, as was Alexander. The dog kept looking up at where the former was, growling quietly.

Once outside the property gate, Ed looked around, and said, "Hey Nina? How does a piggyback ride sound?"

She agreed immediately. After he took his jacket off and transmuted it to something less noticeable, he helped the four-year-old climb onto his back. Alexander looked up at him, and Ed noticed the dog's eyes had gone slightly glassy. He had no doubts that it was Alphonse's work.

The sun was going down by now. It had only taken two hours before they started seeing blue military uniforms almost everywhere—definitely on the search for him and Nina. Al—while controlling Alexander—proved to be a huge help with the dog's nose. Their telepathic communication still worked fine when Al was in control of someone or something else.

"Big brother, I'm cold," Nina said quietly.

In response Ed ducked off into a side alley, sitting down. He was running out of ideas by now, and he had to come up with something before—

"We're doing really good." Nina's voice broke his thoughts. "This must be the longest hide-and-seek game ever!"

Something then struck Ed, and he felt a smile force itself onto his face. He knew exactly where they were going to go.

No sooner had Ed knocked on the door of the Hughes household did he find himself yanked inside by the collar of his shirt.

Within a minute, Nina had been shuttled off to a different room to quietly play with Alexander—Elycia had just fallen asleep—and Maes Hughes was giving Ed a stern look. "You've got some serious explaining to do here." At seeing Ed's expression, he added, "There's gotta be a reason you came here. Am I right?"

"Y-Yeah. Look, this is gonna sound crazy, but—Shou Tucker's assessment is coming up, right?" Hughes nodded. "He—he was going to use Nina to transmute a talking chimera. You remember the first one he made, right?" Edward was going on a very big hunch right now.

Again, a nod. Hughes looked thoughtful now. "Yeah. That's how he got his certificate in the first place. What about it?"

"You'll have to take my word for this—it's impossible to make a talking chimera out of any purely animal composite. It's be able to mimic things, sure, but it wouldn't be able to understand any of it or come up with its own words. From what I've heard, Tucker's chimera spoke without being prompted."

"It said that it wanted to die."

"Exactly! And if Tucker was trying to impress people, why teach it that?"

"What are you saying, Ed?"

"Hughes. What happened to Tucker's wife?"

"She died two years ago."

"He told me that she left two years ago. Why would he lie about that?"

Hughes looked confused—and then a look of the beginning of a horrifying realization came onto his face. "You're not saying…?"
"Yeah. I'm definite he used his wife for that chimera. His assessment didn't go well last time, and he's desperate. He was going to use Nina. I have more proof, but, ah…you'd think I was totally insane."

Hughes looked thoughtful for a few moments, completely silent. "His assessment is tomorrow morning," he said finally. "You can stay here until after it. I can't say I fully believe you, but I'm not going to take that sort of risk."

Alphonse knew something had happened when Hughes entered the room with a dark look on his face. Ed, who was already half-awake, sat up immediately, blinking any remaining sleep out of his eyes.

"Ed, you were right," Hughes said.

"About…?"

"About Tucker. He was more than a little unstable. He was a danger to everyone around him, doubly so to someone as young as Nina."

"What happened?" Ed demanded at the same time as Al—although no one would be able to hear the latter, save for Ed.

Hughes frowned. "I wasn't there for it, but word got around fast. Apparently he had some sort of breakdown and tried transmuting himself with a stray cat right in front of the panel. They managed to stop him and time and restrained him. He was taken into custody after that."

I knew it, Alphonse thought. "What'll happen to him now?"

"Nothing. The State Alchemist killer Scar broke in and killed him before anyone could do anything. Tucker's dead."

"And Nina…?"

"About that." Hughes scratched the back of his neck in a sheepish manner. "I accidentally let it slip that you both came here, but the higher-ups said they'd let it slide, what with what had happened. A few of 'em were even saying that it was probably a good thing you'd gotten the hell out of there when you had, and that they didn't want to think about what might've happened to Nina if you hadn't. As for Nina herself…they're still discussing that. They're assuming that she'll have to be put in a home, though."

Ed's eyes widened. "A home?! They can't do that! Th-They—wait." He ran into another room and grabbed the phone, dialing a number, and tapping his human foot repeatedly while waiting. Then, without giving the person he called a chance to even speak, he said, "Sorry for the short notice, but I've got a huge favor to ask…"

You may all guess away on who Ed called.

If anyone has any requests on what scenes they want to see rewritten, ask away. Just be sure to tell me what chapter it's in so I can look it up online.