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Chapter VII - The Evil in Alchemy

"Who are you writing a let-ter to?" Nina asked as she found Ed inscribing something on a piece of paper.

"Just to Winry" Ed said.

I teased, "Is Winry your girlfriend, Ed?"

"NO! No!" Ed exclaimed between his nervous laughs, "She's just a friend! I'm just telling her that I passed the exam and stuff."

Ed turned back towards his desk, while trying to hide his blushing face.

"I'll write a let-ter fo my mommy too!" Nina said excitedly. She pulled out her crayons and a piece of paper and started drawing on it. I wonder where her mother is. Mr. Tucker said a while back that she had left them, but why? Why does she not live in this house?

o0❤0o

Ring. Ring. I heard the doorbell and strode to the living room. Before I opened it, I looked at myself in the mirror to fix my hair. I put the blue strands in the front and left the black curly tips to fall behind. If it's Mustang, I can't let him see me when my hair's a mess. Wait, why do I care what he thinks?

Ring. The bell rang again and I opened it. Standing at the door were three officers, all of whom I had never seen before.

The Elric brothers and Mr. Tucker came to stand by my side, when the officer closest to me said, "I'm the brigadier general. The Sewing-Life Alchemist is one of my top priorities and I know you all are sneaking around his experiment." He pointed a finger at me and the Elric brothers and stared at us with his cold eyes.

"I can no longer permit you three to take shelter at his estate."

o0❤0o

As I packed all my belongings and headed for the front door, my eyes caught something that was being burnt at the fireplace. I bent my knees to take a closer look at the piece of paper. One of the edges were burnt completely, but it looked like it was a drawing of two parents, a little girl, and a dog. Nina's letter to her mother! What's it doing in the fireplace? Thinking that it had fallen there by accident, I picked it up and extinguished the fire that had caught on to it. Poor Nina had worked so hard on the letter...

"Where are you going to go, Maya?" Ed asked as I lifted my suitcase and got to the front gate of the house.

"I'm going to get my monthly wage from the gardener tomorrow. I'm going to get a room in a motel after that. Meanwhile, I'll just wander these streets at night..."

"Where are you guys going?"

"We don't know yet, we'll have to see" Al said.

I kept my left palm over my face to conceal the sunlight and waved goodbye to the brothers with the other hand. We turned our separate ways on the junction of two streets and I walked alone, figuring out what to do in the meantime.

o0❤0o

I walked quickly through the streets until I caught sight of the house. I stopped near the lamp post and planned to make the officers standing in front of the house unconscious by using water alchemy. It's the only way to get inside Mr. Tucker's house and find out about the chimera. Something seems to be wrong and I have to know what it is.

A midnight-blue light flowed from my hand and hit an officer standing to the right of the gate. As the water enveloped him, he screamed and sank to the ground. As I turned to attack the other officer, I found him lying still on the ground. I looked up to see Al and Ed standing there a few feet away from me.

"What are you doing here?!" Ed whispered to me.

"The same reason as you two, now let's get moving inside quickly!"

We silently opened the windows and got inside. The lights had been turned off everywhere in the house, except the basement. The brothers and I rushed to the basement while trying to make as little sound as possible. As soon as we entered, we found ourselves surrounded by dogs, cats, and strange creatures in cages that were growling at us. They were different from ordinary animals, however; their large eyes glowed bright purple as they stuck out their long black tongues that were covered in slime.

"Come on in, I was expecting you" a voice said from the far end of the basement.

We moved closer to the voice and saw Mr. Tucker standing there, his back facing us. He immediately turned around and revealed a creature that was standing beside him. It looked like a huge white dog with brown human-like hair. That's odd. If Nina and Alexandra had a baby, it would definitely look like this.

"This is a chimera that can speak the human tongue" Mr. Tucker said.

I went up to touch it and it came closer to me. "Maya, sister" it said and I felt myself shiver.

I withdrew my hand from its hand in shock and looked at it closer. Can this be possible? Did that man use his own daughter and his own dog to create this thing?! Had he used his wife before?!

I glared at the man in front of me as he proudly described his accomplishment.

"Wow, it can really talk!" Al said.

Ed was just standing there, his eyes on the ground. He looked at me and nodded, before turning his eyes at Tucker. He seems to be thinking the same thing as me.

"When did you last make a chimera? And when did your wife leave you?" Ed asked Tucker.

"Both were two years ago. Why? What are you getting at?"

"Tell me this," Ed continued, "Where have Alexandra and Nina gone to?!"

Tucker glared at us and let out a sign. His facial expression changed, making his eyebrows raise and giving his eyes a cruel look.

I grabbed Tucker's shirt and threw him against the wall. Restraining myself from kicking him, I said, "He used his own wife before. And this time he transmuted his daughter and the dog together."

"What?!" Al exclaimed.

Ed grabbed Tucker's collar and pulled him back to his feet.

"Why are you all getting so upset? It's the scientific process to test, it's trial and error. All advancements have a price."

"After all," Tucker continued, "I did almost the same thing that you did to your mother." What did Ed do to his mother?

Ed cried, "No, it's not the same thing! Alchemy should not be used for evil!"

Ed went to punch him in the face and Tucker fell back down again. I let my anger slip and kicked him several times in the chest. I jabbed him on his cheek once and was about to do it again, when something pulled my blue shirt. I turned around to see the chimera near me.

"No, sister" it said.

I stopped hitting Tucker and looked at Ed. Ed started to move his hands together to try to use alchemy and separate Nina and Alexandra, but Tucker stopped him, "If you try that, you'll do the same thing that you did to your mother."

We heard footsteps coming towards us and turned around to face many officers running to the basement. After hearing our story, they took Tucker into custody and locked up the chimera in a cage. Ed tried to stop them, but was hit by the brigadier general.

When the car took off with the captives, Ed used alchemy to make the car fall off. I let the blue light flow from my hand and filled water inside the car to prevent the chimera from getting hurt. The chimera escaped from the car just in time. I was going to get it, when it ran away and escaped in the alley. We tried to follow it, but lost it after crossing a different street. We eventually stopped at a small alley when we saw it going there. But when he reached there, one end of the alley was covered in splashes of blood. Is that Nina's chimera?! Who had done that to her? Who killed her? Ed went near the blood and slammed his fist against the wall. I heard someone walk behind me and saw Mustang standing there. He walked passed me and grabbed Ed's hand.

"This is just part of the military, Ed. You have to give your emotions some rest." Mustang said.

"Let the investigation department handle this."

With that, Mustang dragged Al and Ed back from the alley and glared at me to follow him. I walked silently behind and sat on the steps of a doorway. Mustang wrapped a black coat around me and went back to the alley to investigate. A while passed as more and more officers gathered at the alley.

"It can't be the serial killer, he only kills women" I heard someone say.

I pulled on to the black coat tighter as I stared at nothing particular.

"Go home now, it's late" I heard someone say and looked up to see Mustang walking closer to me. All of the officers had left the place by now, and Al and Ed were nowhere to be seen. Mustang and I were the only ones left at the crime scene.

Mustang sat on the stairs beside me and wrapped his right hand on my shoulders. I realized that I had been shivering and despite the quickening of my heartbeat, his touch calmed me down.

"You have to get used to this now, Maya," I heard him say, "this world is an ugly place. Alchemy can also be used for evil purposes."

I looked up and he smiled slightly at me. I felt a tear roll down my right cheek. I didn't know when I had been crying or for how long. Before another tear started to fall, his left hand brushed against my cheek. My eyebrows loosened up and I felt a warm sensation in my chest. In the glazing moonlight, Mustang looked even more attractive than usual. His raven-colored hair and eyes complimented the night while his gleaming face had a contrasting effect and stood out.

"We should get going now," he said and helped me get up.

"Tell me where you're currently staying and I'll drop you off" he said and started to lead me to his black car.

"Mustang," I called and tugged the sleeve of his hand, "I-I don't have a place to live yet. I used to live at Tucker's house, but he..."

He brought his hand up to his chin and pondered for a while.

"Well, I can't just leave you here. You can stay in my house for tonight and we can arrange something tomorrow."

As I didn't have any other option, I agreed and followed him silently into the car. Before he sat down on the seat to drive, Mustang said with a kind smile, "And you don't need to call me Mustang. Call me Roy."

Oh snap! Maya's staying at Roy's house? She is finally going to fall for Roy now?