A/N: Thanks to fireice alchemist73, angiesmile, j.d.y., Nellabelle, stabbythings, Tomboyzrock, and RockXBlues4Eva

Today, Samuel had the day off. He walked downstairs wearing an olive green tank top and a pair of blue jeans. Samuel flinched slightly at how cold it felt when his bare feet hit the steps. It was a chilly morning. Samuel ran a hand through his dark brown hair, which was starting to reach his shoulders.

Hn, I really should get a haircut soon. If my hair grew any faster it'd reach my ankles within a month. Samuel frowned a bit. He didn't like having long hair which is why it irked him a bit how quickly his hair grew. Just as he reached the bottom of the stairs he paused, blinking somewhat at the breakfast table.

Scott was sitting slumped over, like she hadn't slept in days. A cup of coffee was in her left hand with steam rising from it, while in her right hand was five-inch thick book. There was no title on the cover or on the spine. Scott had the book open to somewhere near the end. Scott had a look of complete and utter hopelessness on her face. Her hair was sticking out in random places like she hadn't brushed it yet. Her eyelids kept drooping, showing that she hadn't slept last night. She was wearing the same clothes she wore the day before, a lime green long-sleeved shirt and black jeans. As well as her tie-dye converse. Every now and then a groan of near defeat would emit from the downtrodden girl. Scott lifted the cup of coffee to her lips and downed it in a few gulps. She then stuck out the cup, as if waiting for someone to fill it up. In fact, Emily came rushing out of the kitchen with a pot of coffee filled Scott's cup. Erin stood on the opposite side of Scott's chair hold a container of liquid creamer and a different container with sugar. Scott poured an overly generous amount of both into the cup and stirred the contents. A cloud of depression seemed to hover over her.

Samuel pushed up his glasses and frowned again. He walked over to where the Fuehrer had sat about three days ago, in between Emily and Erin. Rai came out of the kitchen with two steaming cups of tea in her hands. She gave one to Samuel and then sat in her spot with her cup. As usual, Rai was overly chipper for someone who had, most likely, been up since four in the morning. Her hair was poufy, meaning she must have brushed it dry. She was a little sluggish in some of her movements, which meant that she had had at least six cups of some kind of caffeinated drink. Drinking too much caffeine or sugar, instead of giving Rai a sugar rush, would usually make her sleepy. Samuel estimated that Rai would probably crash in about an hour to half an hour…and then wake up ten minutes later and nearly bounce off the walls. Well, at least this time she was wearing her own pajamas, a white tee-shirt and fuzzy pajama pants striped pink, red, orange, and lavender. Rai wasn't wearing her fuzzy purple slippers today; they had 'died' as Rai put it, which meant they finally got so worn out that you could see through them.

"…what's with her?" Samuel finally asked, referring to Scott. Erin, who was still standing at the ready in case Scott needed more creamer or sugar, sighed tiredly.

"The field test or whatever for the Alchemy Exams is today at like 1:00 or so." Erin told Samuel.

"I'm going to fail!" Scott half-wailed, causing everyone to look at her. "I'm going to fail so badly that they'll tell me never to use alchemy again!" She slammed her head onto the table.

"Now, now, Scott, giving yourself a concussion won't help you pass the test!" Rai told her, a goofy grin once again spread across her face. Scott lifted her head off the table just enough to glower at Rai.

"Shut up." Scott ordered. Rai laughed and rolled her eyes. She then snatched the book from Scott and flipped to a random page.

"Do you know what you'll have to do for the test?" Rai asked, scanning the page.

"Yeah, we have to show the examiner/s some kind of outstanding alchemy…I'm doomed!" Scott was about to hit her head on the table again before Rai stuck and a hand out to stop her.

"Oh, oh, oh, me thinks I has an ideas!" Rai said, bouncing up and down on her seat with excitement and butchering the English language. A near malevolent glint was in her eyes.

This won't end well. Samuel, Erin, and Emily thought at the same time.

"Alright, what is it?" Scott asked, too tired to see the mischievous vibes pulsing off of Rai. Rai spun the book around and showed the page that she had randomly flipped to.

"You could make…a snowman!" Everyone simply stared at Rai with funny looks on their faces. There was dead silence in the room. Scott was the one who broke it.

"…What have you been smoking? And why aren't you sharing?" Scott asked; a serious look on her face. Rai scowled in impatience.

"No, no, no. Look!" Rai seemed to be having trouble putting her reasoning into words so she just pointed at the page. Scott looked at the title of the chapter.

"'How to Manipulate the Weather? How would that-oh. Now I have an idea!" Scott now looked much more awake now. She glanced at the clock, and then did a double-take. "Shit, it's 12:45! I've got to go!" Scott ran into the kitchen and after much clanking and crashing, came running out with a wooden bowl. Scott grabbed her staff from under her chair and just as quickly exited the room. She ignored everyone's questions and left without saying another word. Rai sat there and pouted.

"But what about my idea?"


Scott made it to the Exam just in time. It was held at the same place as the written exam, only in the field behind to the obnoxiously boring building. Other than the group that was there because of the exams, were a young boy and his slightly older brother playing with a kite. The other six exam-takers were already there. The three examiners gave her annoyed glares. Scott glared right back at them, and was about to tell them to do very bad things to their couches when she noticed King Bradley.

Oh God, why did he actually come?! Scott twitched slightly at the sight of the man. King Bradley gave her a warm smile, one that Scott would have loved to knock off his face…if there wasn't the factor of him being surrounded by like five armed guards. What surprised her the most, however, was that both Fullmetal and that annoying Colonel Mustang person were also there.

"'The hell are you doing here?" Scott asked them; a slightly stupefied look on her face.

"Ah, I invited them." King Bradley told her before the other two could get a chance to talk.

"What is this, a social gathering? I could've sworn it was an exam!" Scott sarcastically bit at him. King Bradley just continued to smile. Fullmetal glared back at her, his posture was somewhat hunched over, making him even shorter than he usually was. It took a lot of self-restraint for Scott not to point it out.

"Ed, you look even short stooped over like that." Mustang told him, obviously purposely trying to push the boy's buttons. Ed snapped up into an almost at attention stance and glared fiery daggers from the depths of hell at Mustang.

"Shut up you poor excuse for a Colonel!" Ed shouts at him. Before the two of them could bicker anymore, the exam takers were told to start.

First up was a man who looked to be in his early twenties. He drew a transmutation circle and then put his hands on it. There was a near-blinding glow. Standing there was a statue of the man. It looked exactly like himself, only three times his size.

Somebody has a huge ego. Scott thought dryly. It seemed that both Ed and Mustang were thinking the same thing as they scowled at the statue. The examiners nodded to each other and scribbled on the clipboards they had with them.

Scott didn't pay attention to the second person who went; she was too busy thinking about whether or not her idea was going to work.

"Scott Monroe, you're next." One of the examiners told her. Scott could feel her stomach tie up into knots as she walked a little distance away from the rest of the group. Looking up she saw that the sky was partly cloudy, the clouds themselves leaning more towards being gray than being white. If I remember science class, this might work. Scott bent down and filled her bowl part way with dirt. She then stood up and gave the confused looking people a shaky smile that said 'this will most likely fail horribly so don't be too surprised.' With that she took her staff from the strap on her back and hit the ground with one of the ends. Every transmutation circle on the staff glowed, and Scott rocketed upwards as a pillar grew right beneath her feet. The ground around the pillar sunk as it grew. The onlookers had to leap out of the way as to not fall into the hole. In a matter of moments she was level with the clouds. She actually could reach out and touched the clouds if she wanted to, but decided against it. Tee hee hee, I feel reallylight-headed. She held out the wooden bowl out in front of here, and then spun around on her heel, causing all of the dirt to fly into the air. Scott then held out her staff. It glowed again.

The clouds turned an even darker shade of gray, and grew in size. The people on ground could hear thunder rumbling as Scott disappeared when the cloud began to cover her. The examiners began whispering amongst themselves in excited tones. Then, it began to rain.

The pillar rapidly shrank, the ground rose up to its normal level as Scott made her descent back to the ground. She was absolutely drenched from head-to-toe even though it had just started to rain ('cause you know, clouds are kind of wet.). The examiners were now trying to protect their clipboards from the onslaught coming from the sky.

"That's amazing!" one of the other exam-takers gasped.

"I better not rust!" Ed shouted over the thunder. Mustang looked very displeased with having to be stuck in this type of weather. Scott laughed at him, enjoying his misery for some reason she wasn't entirely sure of. King Bradley began to clap, everyone else joining in.

That's when the lightning flashed.

It struck a tree only a mile away in the forest. The tree caught on fire, but didn't stay that way as it was raining so hard. That made everyone jump.

"Well, that's all for the exam!" One of the examiners shouted. "You'll get your results tomorrow!" he said. Everyone began to leave when Scott froze in mid-step.

Something wasn't right; she could feel it in her gut.

"Ani!" She heard someone scream. It was one of the little boys.

"Shit!" Scott shouted, spinning on her heel and running towards the boys. They trying to run for cover, but Scott had a feeling that they weren't going to make it.

"What are you doing?!" Scott heard someone shout to her, but she ignored them. Scott ran faster than she had ever run in her whole life, lungs burning and sides aching, towards the boys.

She wasn't going to make it. Scott knew that and made a spilt-second decision.

"HIT THE DIRT!!" She screamed as loud as she could to the boys. They must have heard her because the dropped to the ground.

Right as the lightning bolt made its way towards them.

Scott grasped her staff with two hands and held it high in the air. Her staff began to glow again. The staff, although made of wood, had a rod in its core. At that moment the rod at the center of her staff acted as a lightning rod. The lightning bolt changed direction and struck Scott.

It felt as if she was being kicked by a horse, only all over her body. The electricity running through her was like no pain she had ever felt in her whole life. Her skin felt as if she was just thrown into a pit of fire. Scott convulsed for several seconds, and then fell to the ground.


Scott awoke to see nothing but white. She felt herself floating, not unlike in water, but a little different. Scott jerkily looked around, but could see anything except for emptiness, and white. She looked at her body, but didn't saw any burns. In fact, she wasn't in any pain at all. She felt warm inside-content. If it wasn't for the fact that she was wearing a white summer dress, Scott would have actually really liked this place.

"What the hell?" She asked aloud.

"You really shouldn't swear, Scott." That voice, it couldn't be-could it?

"Mom?" Scott turned around, well more like drifted, not sure if she wanted to know or not. It was her. Romanda Monroe was standing there, wearing a dress similar to what Scott was wearing.

She was a picture of health, nothing like on the day that she died. Her skin had a nice, healthy glow to it and it looked smooth. Her voice sounded like the tinkling of chimes on a light breezy day. Romanda was her usual petite-but not too thin-stature, unlike when she was sick and looked like a skeleton. Her dishwasher blonde hair was practically glowing, flowing behind her although there appeared to be no wind. Her bright emerald-green eyes were alight with life. Romanda was her usual beautiful self.

Scott frowned a bit, wondering why she was standing in front of her deceased mother, and then it hit her.

"Am I…dead?" Scott asked hesitantly. Romanda gave her a beautiful sad smile.

"Not yet, but you will be if you don't go back now." Romanda told her. Scott blanched.

"Go back? But Mom, I want to stay here with you! Oh Mom, everything went completely downhill ever since you died, please let me stay here with you!" Scott begged. Romanda suddenly gave her daughter a very strict look.

"Now young lady, didn't you have something you needed to do? Like, I don't know, becoming a State Alchemist?" Romanda floated up to Scott and bopped her lightly on the head. "Just because life gets a little tough doesn't mean you can just give up! Now as your mother I am ordering you to turn your butt around and go back this instance!" Romanda scolded Scott.

"Grrr! Fine!" Scott said, in a partially whinny-partially groaning voice; sounding like a child who was just told to go finish cleaning their room. Then the world around Scott faded to black.


Scott's snapped open and she tried to sit up in bed, but somebody pushed her back by her shoulders into a lying position. At first everything was blurry, but after Scott blinked a few times she could see clearly. Standing at the foot of her hospital bed was both Rai and Ed, looking down at her with mirroring worried looks. Al was standing off to the left side next to the blonde woman that was at the train station with Mustang, whose name Scott couldn't remember at the moment. On her right side, the person standing next to her bed and holding her down was Mustang. He removed his hands when he thought she wouldn't try to sit up.

"Wha-?" Scott tried to ask.

"You're alive!!!!" Rai basically jumped on her and gave her a crushing hug.

"Rai-chan, you shouldn't tackle someone who's injured like that." Al warned her, pulling Rai off of Scott. Rai pouted but willing released Scott. Scott rolled her eyes at Rai's silly behavior, wondering if there'd ever be a time when that girl would mellow out. Scott then turned her attention to Mustang.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him. She had only met him twice so far, so she didn't understand why he and-ah yes her name was Riza Hawkeye-his Lieutenant were doing here.

"Mustang was the one who brought you here." Rai told Scott.

"Are you alright?" Mustang asked. The way his voice sounded when he asked it, made Scott frown. He sounded more like a worried parent than just a regular person worried about her health.

"I felt fine." Scott told him, trying to sit up again. He pushed her back down.

"You should rest." He told her. This irritated Scott. Who the hell was this guy, trying to tell her what to do?

"I said I'm fine! God it's not like you're my father or anything so don't tell me what to do!" Scott snapped at him. There was a pause, everyone else shuffled uncomfortably. Scott narrowed her eyes at them. "What?" she demanded.

"Well, you see, uh Colonel Mustang told us something while you were being treated by the doctors." Rai told her. Scott had a very bad feeling about this.

"Which was?" She asked, though Scott had a feeling she already knew the answer. Mustang cleared his throat, drawing all of the attention back to him. He stared down at Scott, and gave her a serious look.

"I'm pretty sure that I'm your father." Colonel Roy Mustang told her.