Chapter 13

A.N. Hey guys, sorry for the one delay update but frankly I was so tired(and still am) that I just couldn't convince my lazy ass to proof read this a little before posting. This week's chapter is another Talking-no-Jutsu chapter, but with the next update some action will start happening. I just find it necessary to have chapters like this so yea... I hope you'll enjoy.

Any mistakes aren't intentional. (Is this still necessary at this point? Haven't you guys get used to this until now?)

Maes' P.O.V.

Maes watched stupefied the interaction between Roy, Roy's love interested, not that he ever admitted his crush to Riza, and Roy's newest disciple, an idea that he still could not grasp: that Roy had agreed to tutor someone, in alchemy nonetheless. He watched in somewhat morbid fascination the interaction between the other 3 people in the room. Roy was casually slopped into the chair in front of him at the table looking more relaxed after the two females had come to his rescue by ending Maes' subtle inquisition. He was talking to both him and Riza which was handling some plates and the oven in the adjoining kitchen. Next to her washing the dishes was the little girl that had the energy of mini tornado.

He watched the three of them talk and interact in the way that only people with strong bonds interacted. He remembered what Roy had told him about the girl and counted since when she had been in their lives. Whatever he did the numbers did not go further than a month. Then what made both Roy and Riza so attached to this child? It was like they were a bloody family by the looks of it.

The last part might he said out loud since Roy frowned at him disapprovingly and asked what he said.

"Nothing, just my usual musings." he shrugged the thing off not wanting to upset his best friend with things he was not yet able to admit. "She is quite a deal." He pointed with his head toward the kitchen and to the girl. "Yes she is." Roy admitted but it didn't escape Maes that Roy wasn't looking to the younger female. He couldn't resist the urge to smile his friend was just a sucker when it came to Riza Hawkeye.

"Now, now, Roy it isn't the time for you to turn into a sappy puppy over Riza." he remarked a bit too loud. He just laughed at Roy's coloured way of telling him to shove it.

"Oh but Roy is always a sappy pup when Riza is around." Agreed a voice to his right and he turned to see Alette with a tray of drinks which she placed on the table. He took a glass of scotch laughing at Roy's uncomfortable look. The girl pulled a chair and sat at the table taking the glass of water from the tray.

"You should see them at work." she leaned in conspiratorial and whispered just loud enough for Roy to hear. "If those two don't end up together life doesn't have any meaning."

"I hear you just fine so you know." Roy growled over his whiskey.

"I just ship them so hard." she continued unfazed by his comment. At that Maes' snicker died off. What did she mean by that? She must've seen his confusion because she added hurriedly about how shipping meant wanting two people two together so bad. Maes shrugged the oddity of the term, because who compares two terms so different like that, his thoughts going back to their original trail. The girl was not from this world if her words were true, and little loops like this made him believe it was true.

He examined her once more and without realising he noted some oddities. Her hair was different. Before it had been longer and now she had side bangs like Riza had. He hadn't noticed this until now as he got a closer look at her. Also it was something different about her peaks. Her hair there was white a snow. He remembered that she had some silver shining in it before, he noticed the oddity but now the white stood out. Also since her hair was a little shorter and the white was still present that meant that a good part of it had been white before she had cut it. The question was why had her hair turned white in only a few hours? He watched her fight in a friendly way with Roy not participating in the discussion anymore. He noticed that her skin was paler. After the fight he remarked her paleness but now she looked almost close to a sick-pale as if she hadn't left the house due illness for several months. He watched her trying to figure out something different about her when she suddenly turned around her eyes piercing his. And there was it. Their colour. He knew she hadn't had perfect blue eyes before, and yet now they had no green left.

"Is it something wrong?" she asked watching him, her tone indicating that she knew she had been watched. But that was not what baffled Maes but her words. She had had before a strange way of pronouncing things but in that moment her accent grew thicker, her words sung by it. He furrowed his eyes at her in return.

"That's an odd accent you've got there." He remarked casually. Alette watched him slightly taken aback before her face grew completely neutral. "I guess it is" she responded, an undecipherable poker face covering anything that her face might reveal. How could a 17 year old have such an undecipherable face? "I had grown in a country named England when I was little before I moved somewhere where people spoke like you. Because of my memories I must've picked it once more. It happens when I think of a period in the past where I talked like this."

As she spoke she fidgeted nervous with her glass. Maes thought about her words. The name England rung no bell for him and he knew no country on the map was named like this. The realisation that the girl had been telling the truth made him feel uneasy. The possibility of another dimension where things and people were so different was actually frightening to Maes.

"You never mentioned exactly what your memories told you." Roy remarked.

"Well it was quite hectic back then with the Elrics being attacked and me jumping to save their stupid arses." She responded angrily and Maes almost snickered at Roy's submissive face.

"Well tell us now. What do you know?" At that she bit her lip and started chewing it nervously but before she could answer Riza came with a pot of food looking rather impatient. "Oh just leave the girl alone. She doesn't have to speak if she doesn't want to."

"Oh I want to but I don't really know how to start." For a second she looked lost in her thoughts before snatching Roy's whiskey and drinking it from a gulp. He opened his mouth to comment to such action but a waterfall of words poured from her mouth, so fast that Maes could barely follow her.

"Well my story goes like this. As I told you, I was born on December the 17th 1997 in a world called Earth. My mother died in a car accident when I was 3 after she ran from home because of a fight with my dad, which by the way was a complete fucker. Years later I had found that the fight was him accusing her of adultery since before they were married. After that I had to live with him and his hatred of my mom. I think the accident fucked him up badly but I can't really say. Because of that and the hate and resentments regarding my mother he fell back upon violence and ignorance towards my existence. In shorter terms he had been an abusive parent that had tried to keep me in place through violence since I was 4. When I was 10 he remarried his assistant which I think he had been fucking for a while. The woman was nice if you can say a plastic brain-dead doll is nice. Too bad that she decided I was unfit in every possible way and because of that she used some sort of brainwashing thing making me believe that I didn't deserve anything, I was the ugliest duck in the pond and probably the stupidest. That and the violence my dad used on me for years until then, marked me psychologically pretty badly and I think I started developing at some point signs of depression and mental illness. Add on the list isolation from children my age and bullying at school when we moved to another country, and I could say things were pretty bad. Meanwhile I closed myself completely not expressing myself in any way or being able to look as I had opinions or feelings. Actually I thought I was not entitled to have feelings or opinions and since I cried or did the slightest thing my dad considered unfit and derogatory to his status I was beaten, I could say I was one fucked child. Later I started cracking under the pressure of my life being perfect robot-behaviour, perfect grades, trying to do my best to look good even though I was an ugly fuck."

At that she stopped for a moment chocking her. Maes knew his face must've been one of complete shock. He knew that Riza and Roy were the same. He heard the words but he couldn't really understand them or even start to imagine the circumstances this girl was presenting them or understand the calmness in which she narrated. Complete and utter shock was what he was feeling. He watched her as she mindlessly starched her forearm before continuing. All the meanwhile some things clicked in his mind: the way she had such a blank face easily hiding anything, some way of moving her eyes around to room analysing, cautious, the way she expected their hatred when it came to her circumstances. Fury flamed in him thinking of his little girl only feeling half of those things. How could anyone go through this?

"So I gave up and ran. The problem was I was distracted and after a few hours I made a car crash trying to avoid hitting someone. When I woke up I was in some sort of community, close to the Ishbalen slums you have all around here, only it was some sort of mix of groups. There was a group of girls that was the most predominant there but there were also random people hiding in those complex of buildings. Apparently I almost hit this girl Dee so in return she brought me there and saved me from dying or being brought back. I remained there for a year living as a runaway with little food or accommodations, eventually getting into thievery. To be honest, excluding the dire circumstances and the things the place lacked of, which was everything, it was the best part of my life. I befriended and formed a very strong bond with Dee and somehow recovered from my catatonic state. It was far from how I am now but it was far better. For once I felt as a human alive.

Everything had been good, or as good or as it can be when you're homeless and don't have anything. One day when I was a scout mission, stealing mission why hiding now and we got caught. I was responsible to deactivate the alarms, a system which informed authorities if a door from a store was opened. That night we needed medicine so we went into a better part of a town. The alarm was tricky but I thought I had it right, which of course I didn't. Police came and I shot an officer with his gun and incapacitated the other one trying to escape. Some girls ran with the supplies and escaped but me and Dee, which were distracting the police didn't. I killed a man firing aimlessly and Dee jumped in front of the guns trying to buy us time."

As she said those words her voice grew thick and her eyes wondered aimlessly on the wall as the memories haunted her. "I hold her until she died…" she whispered, her present-self lost in the past. Maes new the feeling that haunted her. He knew Riza and Roy were acquaintance to it much better. Everyone who was in Ishbal knew it. The feeling when you lost a comrade and watched his life leave him. For a moment he found himself being dragged back in his own past and confronted with his own sins. God, through what had this girl been through? He was snapped back into the present by Alette's voice.

"After that I got arrested. The wanted to send me to jail. Too bad my father got to me first and dragged me back in that life. He needed me still and put, the whole hidden scandal under the rug since he wanted to get into a position of power in the government and he had a public image to maintain. I agreed only after he blackmailed me with hurting my friends that remained in the slums. I negotiated my freedom for theirs. After that not much happened. I was enrolled in a private school with other important kids, but many of them had their own stupid theories about me, far from the truth about my disappearance. That didn't stop them from bullying me. I didn't care about those things, or even about my father anymore. The events in the past year have changed me and the death of my best friend had put its mark on me." At that she shrugged. "But one day a girl made a stupid remark about me being a killer and murdering any friends I had and I snapped. As I lived on the streets I had undergo some training to defend myself since it was anything but never safe. I was a good fighter. So I beat the shit out of her. I was going home knowing I will have to support dire retaliation from my family since I destroyed our deal when a car hit me and I died. Like that."

There she stopped looking at them rather suspicious. "From that part on, things get strange to say at least. I was some sort of spectrum after that. I saw myself trying to be saved by the doctors and even my own funeral. I could say the apathy of my family didn't surprise me. My father was rather relieved and annoyed at my death. But then I was swooped to the Gate."

"As in the Gate of Truth that the Elric brothers had seen when they performed Human Transmutation?" Roy spoke for the first time.

The girl just nodded. "Precisely." She opened her mouth to continue but then she stopped and looked at Roy questioningly. "How much did the brothers tell you about the Gate?"

"Well Edward told me that it was a gate floating in the air with some drawings on it and when it opened black arms dragged him inside were an eye lured. There he felt as the whole information of the world was being shoved in his brain. He also lost his arm and leg there."

She frowned at that. "Ed had been vague and I understand him. That's not half of it. There is something called Truth there Roy. He is close to being the guardian of the Gate or something of that sort."

"Guardian of the Gate? What do you mean by that? What is it?"

"Me. You. Us. Everything. The Gate. God. I don't know what he is. He might be nothing, he might be the ultimate force in our world."

Maes was again shocked. Not that the whole discussion had an odd turn of events and he was starting to get himself lost in all of those alchemic aspects, but for some unknown reason the whole conversation made his hair raise and frightened him. 'An all-around freak show' he thought bitterly. 'I could write this down and hang it around my neck.'

Roy looked speechless at what the girl had said. He opened his mouth and closed only to open it again. Finally he composed himself enough as to ask. "What did it look like?" At that question the girl grew pale -or paler- her eyes looking up huge with fear. Maes felt a shiver. What kind of monster was this guardian?

"White." She whispered. "He is a completely white being. He has no eyes and no noes. Just a mouth. And he looks just like you. The same height. Same body built. Only…"

"Only?" Roy inquired. "Only that his voice isn't human. It's like he speaks with many voices together. I never want for someone to hear that voice." At that she shivered slightly.

"So you got there. What happened?" Maes asked not wanting to continue the subject of Truth.

"He offered me a deal. Of course it was a bad deal, Truth never offers good deals, but I was dead. For Heaven's sake, I never even lived so I took the deal. And he sent me here. I was too selfish to die."

"Without memories." Maes stated ignoring the last affirmation. He didn't think saying that anyone that wanted to live wasn't selfish sine it was the drive of the human nature. "Yes." she nodded.

"What was the deal?" Roy asked and the girl grew even paler is that was possible. She looked at the two men guilty and frightened. Maes could have sworn that he wouldn't like the answer.

"I…He told me that there was no way I could pass the Gate as a whole human. A price had to be paid. An equivalent exchange. He offered me a Philosopher's Stone." At that he gulped and avoided the wide stares. "But he told me that the Stone was not enough for me to pass intact. Just to pass. So he took my memories. And…"

'And?' Maes almost asked, but the girl continued before he could. "And he took half of my being." At that the silence in the room became deafening. Nobody moved, nobody seemed to breathe as the words settled in.

"What do you mean by that?" Roy dared to ask.

"I don't know Roy! Is just that he took half of my soul and being and those reside at the Gate. He didn't give me a pamphlet with 'What to do when you are a Halfling…' He just said he took part of me there and it resides there."

"By took you mean the same way he took Ed's and Al's bodies?" At that Maes examined the girl with a critical eye, which to him looked intact.

"Obviously not. He told me that Al's and my circumstances are different. How, I don't know. In exchange I know that I have this oddities that aren't really normal for a human, right?" At that he looked at Roy accusingly. He fidgeted under her stare.

"Right. And what else?"

"He…he bound me to the Gate." At that her voice grew small and defeated. "He gave me this quest and riddle and if I don't solve it I will loose and I will be dragged back to the Gate. And I will remain there. Call my other half there as an assurance. He also did something to me to bind me to him and he changed my Gate somehow from plain black, but that happened before when he used the Philosopher's Stone."

"Hold it." Maes intervened. "Spend you're eternity at the Gate? So you will be trapped there?"

"Basically, yes. I don't really know what it means either. Just that I don't want it to happen."

Maes kept his mouth shut at that. He couldn't even try to begin to comprehend everything that was happening. He watched the girl as she drew random patterns on the table. This girl had to stay forever in that place that freaked Ed and Al that much forever? With that creature? This was just too much for him. Her past, her present, even her future. He drank his scotch from one swallow, the burn a good reminder that he was alive. He couldn't stop the thought from forming in his mind even though guilt enveloped him. He was alive and hearing all this just made him be more grateful for being alive, for having a beautiful wife and an amazing daughter and a future. Everything that Alette will never have. Damn it all.

He watched her. She was so pale and fragile looking. Yet she was a murderer and a thief. Also not human. Half-human. She had also used a Philosopher's Stone to pass the worlds after she had died. The thing that the brothers looked for was so powerful. As he observed her white complexion and white tips a thought occurred to him.

"You are bound to the Gate, you say. Could that manifest physically?" He knew his supposition was right as the girl almost jumped from her seat, her hand touching her hair.

"What do you mean Maes?" Roy asked. He just pointed at the girl.

"Her hair, which previously wasn't that white. Her paleness. Even her eyes. Aren't all of them turning something to white? But that isn't the question. The question is what happened in a few hours that Alette blacked out on us that a physical changed occurred. Wouldn't it make more sense that if she was bound to Gate that she would turn white faster?"

He knew he hit something from the way she cursed. Roy watched the girl now and Maes could see the wheels spinning in his head.

"Is this more to the story?" She snorted at that. "Roy I don't know half of the story." But she just sighed and continued speaking.

"You know that I can't sleep right? Well apparently when it happens to doze off or I go unconscious I am sent to the Gate and have little chat with Truth. Just like that. Rather uncomfortable I would say. As I fight or use the abilities he gave me I gradually reinforced the bond between us, which brings me closer to vanishing to the Gate."

"Are you basically saying that you are disappearing to the Gate?" Roy exclaimed. "Yes. But very slowly. It appears that not fulfilling the deal isn't the only thing, I am also time limited. The first appearance change I think was after I first came into Amestris and I had a memory glimpse after I had seen the Elrics for the first time. I fought Truth and stole information from him through our bond, thing which explains my nausea, the almost dying feeling and all the other symptoms every time I have a glimpse and I push things for more. It explains perfectly the pain I have to go through every time I try to remember more as the fucker withholds the information. Even my alchemy which I bet with you will ask about comes from him. As he bound himself to me, a part of him resides in me. In that fight with Scar, I think I made use of that part to use alchemy which is not really alchemy. But we'll return to that. What happened is that as I lay unconscious I agreed with Truth to make the bond stronger for answers."

"You gave a part of yourself to find things out? Are you stupid? Doesn't that mean you're closer to being held there?" Roy yelled.

"Too bad I didn't know about any of this before I did this. So it was somehow worth it even though is still don't understand much. I forgot how perceptive Maes here is. I should've known that this wouldn't go unobserved." She said pointing at herself.

Maes shrugged shamelessly. But the compliment made him uneasy, after all she just met him.

"How do you know all of this about us? You said before something of us being a story in world and because of that knowing things…" he asked as well as Roy said "And what about alchemy? You said before that in your world there was none, yet the alchemy you used fighting Scar, but what you use from Truth isn't really alchemy…"

At that he rolled his eyes. Typical alchemists. They just had to concentrate only on what seemed essential to their knowledge. He knew Riza in the kitchen was thinking the exact same thing hearing all of this. Even Alette rolled her eyes at Roy before addressing Maes.

"In my world, as I said before, your world and the concepts of it only exist as a story. Or some sort of a story, it is a little complicated. Anyway, you're story as sick as this may sound, was one of my favourite things and I know all this because in my world I had obsessively read it, read about it and read side stories about it. Now if I could remember I would know the ending and what will happen. Too bad Truth didn't want that so I still have no idea of the future events. I can guess as things come near I can force them out as I did with the attack on Ed and Al, but that happened almost too late so it's kind of useless. I can't pass the void that is where this would be no matter what. Now this rule never applied to things that happened prior our present date such as the Ishbal War, the formation of Amestris, past experiences of all of you. This thing I can recall at will since they don't affect the timeline. Kind of intruding, sorry." She said sheepishly at Maes' outraged face.

"And you know everything about our past?" he asked. "Not everything just what was featured in the story or fanfict….side stories."

"How much do you know about that you know?" he then asked challengingly. At that a perfect eyebrow rose and she spoke. "In the Ishbal War, Roy had a mental breakdown after you fought an ex-mate from the academy that had been Ishbalen but in the war joined his people's side. You shoot him before he killed Roy. He was devastated and he didn't want to go on with a mission of extermination of a district the following day. You yelled at him and you said you'll give him 30 seconds before he had to pull it together. You waited outside his tent for a full minute."

Maes was feeling shocked and somehow stupefied. He also couldn't shake the feeling of violation the forced memory brought upon him. He didn't want to think about that day. He didn't want to remember the nightmares he had for months after that or how he woke Grace up. He didn't want Roy to know his cruel act of kindness. He felt his throat constrict and he just couldn't shake the feeling of defeat her words brought forth. Gods knew he didn't want to think on what this girl knew.

"Sorry" she said in a small voice. "I had no right to choose this or to bring it up to light."

"No it's ok." He involuntarily said. "I brought it upon myself after all." He looked at Roy to see his haunted look. He knew that he wasn't the only one affected by that memory. He watched the gratitude in his eyes that was slowly overcome by his hollow sadness. There was no feeling there that could shake that sadness.

"As for the alchemy, the basic principle is that the alchemy's power reaction comes from the circle. I didn't use any circle or formed a circle through my body. I just thought and the matter obeyed. So I can't say the Gate's alchemy is alchemy. Even the alchemy with a Philosopher's Stone is an equivalent exchange."

"How do you know that?" Roy stopped her harshly. Maes understood, if she knew that much about the Stones, even used one, she could help the brothers. Alette stopped concentrating. Her brows furrowed and her face scoffed in mask of concentration. After a few moments she exhaled a deep breath, inhaling another one deeply.

"Sorry Roy I don't know why or how. I guess the answer mustn't be known yet since I can't have access to it. I wish I knew so I could help Al and Ed but I can't. I wish, but there is nothing there."

Maes felt his temporary hopes being crushed. Of course it wasn't' the girl's fault but he wished that the answer for the boys was accessible now. In the time he met them he grew attached to them and he really wanted them to succeed. He had come to care about their quest and got himself too implied not to feel this as a personal failure. The girl continued looking somehow disappointed.

"That's why I don't want Al and Ed to know. I don't want to crush their hopes like this pointlessly. I have no use to them like this."

"We won't tell." Riza spoke for the first time from the kitchen coming forth to the table. "Don't worry we won't say."

The girl looked at Riza hopefully and nodded thankfully. Maes' heart constricted painfully. He felt pity for the girl and her burden.

"Anyway, the alchemy from the Gate is based more on the knowledge that everything is connected. That and being able to see how. When I used the force I had in me I moulded the matter the way I wanted because of this. I think the alchemy Ed does it is somewhere there too, only not so advanced."

"How do you see everything is connected?"

"I don't really know. Is just I concentrate and I use this flow in me to make myself see the lines. When everything is connected I mean it. Every surface has this white lines connecting and interconnecting, and when two or more intersect a little white dot appears. I just push my energy in those lines and use them to send my energy at any point or distance I want. There I let it free controlling and rearranging the matter to take the form I intended from the start still using those lines. It's more like spatial geometry were I just rearrange some points to create another geometric figure. I don't destroy anything, I more rearrange things at my will."

Maes was completely lost. This all alchemic blabbering was too confusing for him when there weren't any line or roads or inner energies involved. But it looked like Roy understood everything and looked at the girl, mouth agape eyes almost going out of his head.

"Incredible!" he murmured. "That's the most complex form of alchemy I heard of. The alchemic possibilities are endless! The way you described it means you can perform alchemy without any circle or sign, and you can use it at big distances too. Did you find any surface that is not connected? Can you do it even now?"

'God he looks like a kid on Christmas Eve'.

"I don't know, the first time I ever tried it was back then and I didn't really have time to analyse it trying not to have my brain turned into bits, or Edward's for that matter. I could try it..."

Maes' investigator senses kicked in sensing some uneasiness irradiating from Alette.

"But…" he added. To which she gave him a sharp looking trying to tell him she was done with him spilling her secrets. 'At least there's two of us.' He knew what she said before. Her alchemy came from the Gate and she stated that everything that came from there and she used made the bond stronger.

"But when I use it I somehow reinforced my bond to the Gate." Her statement was met with quite, Maes sighing as his assumption turned true. "Not in a significant measure of course, but the knowledge just makes me reluctant in using it. As I am now reluctant in trying to access my memories."

If Maes thought he was frustrated, then Roy was the exact image of desperation looking as a kicked puppy in the rain. He needed all the restrain not tell him that his limited access to alchemy was not a priority at the moment.

"But can you use some even now?" he asked.

Alette nodded. "I think so. I haven't tried since I had woken up."

He watched disbelieving as she said that her stare became disconnected, her eyes looking somewhere far away. The change was subtle and indefinite, Maes almost taking it lightly but considering the situation he paid close attention to it. "Are you both dumb? Your curiosity can't really be so important that she is risking her existence to satisfy it…" But his phrase was stopped as he almost felt waves of energy, weak steady waves of an energy coming from the girl, thing that made him want to shrug uncomfortably. When she finally looked at them her eyes seemed to have some inner lights lit in them, as they almost glowed while they searched the room. He was awed, yes but he couldn't deny he felt scared and somehow so insignificant in front of such a force.

"It's worth risking it since there are almost no risks to it." She said. "The bond is barely touched by this and I would need to use large amounts of alchemic power for a long period of time to be any worth. Like this it's inoffensive." She looked around watching everything in silent awe closing the subject, but Maes wasn't comfortable with this. If it were for him he would make the girl give up this altogether.

Almost immediately she whistled. "Wow I didn't remember all being so damn confusing and coloured. It is as if I am surrounded by a glow." Her eyes darted up and down the room inspecting everything carefully with curiosity and awe. He couldn't help his curiosity spiking in or his wish that he could see whatever she could. Then her eyes fell on Roy and he gasped.

"Oh God."

"What?" both men asked and he noted Riza coming closer.

She ignored the question leaning to Roy and touching the air around him.

"Nothing it's just so pretty. All this energy around you. Like a coloured cloud."

What?

"What?" Roy asked reflecting his thoughts. "I don't know it's just that now I can somehow see the energy of an individual. In my world we stories about things like this. These were called auras but never until now had I believed in them. But they're just so pretty. Yours too Maes. Roy has one of a crimson colour but yours is a sunset yellow. And Riza's is so green." she said turning around.

Her statements were met with more silence as the adults tried to take in this turn of events. This situation was becoming stranger and stranger by second. How could he even keep up with all this supernatural illusions he was hearing about.

"Do you think this is another side effect of reinforcing the bond to the Gate?" Roy inquired. She looked to think about it for a second then nodded. "It is most probable. I don't find other possibility fitting this circumstances."

"Do you see any other changes?" She looked around with an eerie look. "Not really besides the auras." Roy nodded as if he understood. Maes sighed for a moment succumbed in his own thoughts as the last track of the ongoing alchemy conversation. The girl was gaining unhuman like powers as she was losing herself to the Gate. And he thought he had heard it all when he learned about those brothers. It wasn't that he didn't want to accept Alette, it was just he was having a hard time accepting her story. He just wasn't ready to believe in bigger forces, in other worlds or auras for that matter. But what if...

As a thought occurred to him he was restricted by a sudden white light. For a second he was startled until he recognised it as an alchemic transmutation. He watched in awe as the white energy currents travelled as mini lightening across the table following an unseen path only to disappear temporarily in front of Roy, letting the place be effulged in a circle of white light as the transmutation finalised. Now in front of Roy stood a perfect wooden pony that rose from the table. He watched fascinated the complex creation and he was about to ask Roy how when he understood that it wasn't Roy who had casted the alchemy. He turned his head around to look at a rather smug Alette which had been touching the table with only one sleek finger.

It was then he understood she had been right. He had believed her but he didn't really accept the truth of her words until now. Seeing her bend matter at her will like that with only a finger touching the surface of the table made him believe at least in half of the story. And he suddenly became very angry at her rashness in using a power that was slowly killing her.

"Don't look at me like that." she said as if she was reading his thoughts. He was slightly worried that she might actually start to read his mind. "I am not using this much and even if I am don't mind. I don't really have a life left for me anyway and if I can help the people that had been close to me, even as characters that had inspired me more than life ever did, then so be it. I don't know how my coming here had altered things but God be damned that I will see every one of you having a happy ending."

Maes was seething with anger at the young foolishness the girl was displaying. As if her life was lesser than theirs or that her existence could be so easily dismissed.

"Admiring us?" Riza entered the conversation as she kept her silence until then.

"Well, yes." she blushed looking uncomfortable. "After I came back home I had been heartbroken and even somehow depressed, not that I had realised that then. I was just feeling hopelessly trapped with no means to escape, not even in vices." At that her eyes moved to Roy's empty glass and Maes only thought on her vices until then. Smoking, drinking. He knew he had no right to start scolding her especially since she looked well aware of those things but he couldn't help the uncomfortable feeling at the thought of a girl this young indulging in things like this. A short look into Roy's eyes and he saw the same emotions reflecting there, his temper barely not surfacing at this reckless behaviour. He didn't have any right to scold her or point her behaviour, but oh the need to do so was deep, as he barely contained the lecture to hear the story go on. Alette must've seen the exchange as she continued after an awkward pause. "Umm…. that was when I discovered the story of Edward Elric and I fell in love with every aspect of it. I admired and held in high esteem, close to ideal role models many of the characters presented in the ani...book. I didn't despise any of the characters. Every one of you was, even the flawed ones, perfectly flawed, reminding me of what my friend had told me that we are not the sum of our sins. You gave me hope when was none and for a little while, as I succumbed into the guilty pleasure that was your story, I felt happy and free, as twisted as this mind sound to you."

"It's not twisted" Riza said coming closer." You find a leverage to pull yourself up from a sea of guilt and sorrow. I know it took me some time to find one. And even when I did some of it never disappeared and I don't think it will. You had no reason to believe a story was something more. If something, your words only prove how much it meant to you. And for that I am happy that I helped someone somehow."

Maes watched as Alette turned around to look at the woman behind her eyes widen in wonder. As she spoke, Hawkeye approached the girl until she put an affectionate hand on her shoulder squeezing it lightly. For some reason the gesture had been so intimate that he had to advert his eyes. Something was indeed different about this one if she could crack Riza's cold exterior.

"Fool." he still muttered, not knowing for what he called her that. Her behaviour her reckless use of a thing that could easily kill her, for disregarding her existence like that in front of theirs…

"Aren't we all?" she responded. 'Perhaps' he thought 'but we don't put ourselves down like this. It will come a day when you'll see how important you really are.' No soul was unimportant in this world.

"Alette" he said changing the subject and trying to break the awkward silence. "Can you try doing something for me?" She looked at him surprised and nodded. He proceeded to raise himself and went into Roy's living room searching for a piece of paper and a pen. He found some in Roy's journal and tearing a page he brought them forth to the girl.

"Can you please transmute something?" he asked.

At that she looked up at him so fast he thought her neck might break. "I am sure Roy had informed you that I am not able to properly transmute or use alchemy." she said quite sharp.

"I know that already, but if I am right, then you might be able to." he reasoned.

"Please explain."

"Simple. If you said changes occurred after you agreed to strengthen the bond with Truth guy, then you also might now be able to transmute since alchemy is connected to the Gate right? I am no alchemist and I didn't quite get all your mumbo jumbo but I remember these details"

She watched mouth agape as he said sun was square. 'Really? With your story and this surprises you?' Roy had a similar expression on his face, his eyes wide. 'God forbid the non-alchemist make a relevant point about alchemy'.

"It might work" Roy admitted. "You said Truth modified your Gate when he sent you here and from what you told me he used the Philosopher's Stone to do that. When you tried to perform alchemy your link was not as powerful as it is now, as you had proved me earlier. What if you can access the Gate as we do now since you are bound to Truth in a stronger manner?"

She gulped nervous looking down at the table with concentration. Carefully she took the pen in her hand and started drawing some lines on the piece of parchment. She took her time drawing every line steady with concentration. When she was done she looked up at Roy hopeful and frightened. Then she put her palm on the small circle.

Light erupted, blue sizzles of light and then it stopped leaving behind an awed girl and a paper flower. Alette was amazed, looking in shock at the tiny white flower, her eyes darting its contour up and down as if they could not believe what they saw. Maes was somehow surprised himself even though he came with the idea and Roy just looked proud and very smug. She took the flower in her hand examining it carefully, with wonder and Males realised this was her first real transmutation. The sight endeared him and somehow saddened him as the circumstances that prevented her from doing this earlier invaded his mind.

"Now didn't I tell you I had a hunch things will sort themselves out? After all I couldn't take as my dignified apprentice any person without potential."

Three this things happened at once. Riza spoke first with "I don't think that was necessary Roy" Maes just stated "You're an idiot" and Alette asked hopefully if "Are you still going to teach me Flame Alchemy?"

"Well of course. After all we have all the time in the world after the Elrics will leave to Resembool."

Maes knew when something bad was about to happen. It was an instinct that he had even before he participated in the Ishbal War where it grew to a full-fledged premonition in the gut. So he knew the explosion will come before it really happened so he braced himself for the argument that was about to erupt.

"And what the hell you mean by that?" Alette asked rather loudly and angrily.

'And here we go.' he thought.

"Well Ed and All will go to Resembool with to see Edward's mechanic so he can repair his brother."

"And why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"It was quite hard to do that after you fell asleep or fainted or after the information you gave us, wasn't it?"

"Stop screwing around Mustang, you know what I mean. I want to go with them."

"Such crude language for such a young lady." Mustang was charming in his insults, almost relaxed as he was talking about his favourite drink. "Yet you are not going with them as much as you cuss."

"And why not?"

"Because first of all Scar is on the loose if you had forgotten about your near death brawl with him from last time. I'm sure he didn't have the same consideration."

"Armstrong will look after us."

"Because he has the easy job of supervising three brats." he countered easily. "And if you had forgotten your circumstances you aren't even a proper citizen of our country. Not to say your allegiance with Edward will draw a lot of unwanted attention. Add your unique abilities to the list and you'll be our Fuhrer's first priority from now on. Many men had already seen you performing alchemy like that, even though luckily they are loyal to us. Are that stupid to think your freedom comes from anything else but anonymity? Wait until the word about you reaches the wrong ears then. And you're not a skilled fighter or a skilled alchemist for that matter..."

"Cut the crap already you know I can fight. If it were for anything I'll have Riza giving me a gun which I can use correctly thank you very much."

"You cut the crap. If you keep thinking like this you're going to endanger yourself even more. Plus we need to focus on your riddle and solving the puzzle from Truth."

"You know what Colonel Bastard? Thank you for your concern, but no thanks. I can take care of myself."

"Oh God if you weren't so obtuse for a second and see..."

"Enough." Riza boomed. As the two quieted down suddenly she repeated once more lower "Enough".

"Roy is just concerned with you Alette no need to pick on him like that because he doesn't know how to express it. And you" she turned around before the brunette had time to respond "stop patronizing the girl if you don't want people picking on you. Now could you two make up and stop fighting? The food is ready and conversations like this aren't suited for dinner." And with that she left looking at them with a glare saying 'fight once more when I come back and you won't be eating animal meat'.

Maes just hoped they had the brains to get a life threat when they saw one, and fortunately they did. They stopped fighting glaring at each other until Alette finally gave up and asked Roy how will the training go on from now then saying she won't accept any more theory crap. He didn't say anything as he watched them. In the outside everything looked fine, just a normal civil dinner conversation after a mini hurricane. Perfectly normal. But that didn't make him believe anything was fine. On the contrary, he knew Roy well enough to see that his mannered exterior was a façade to hold back his comebacks since his respect -or fear- of Riza was stronger than his fury. But that wasn't it all. The girl was even more cunning and good at concealing her emotions. She looked as calm as anyone, having small chat as any upper-society lady. She let nothing loose and with her past he didn't want to think what had made her come up with such a deceiving talent. Everything was ok and well hidden, besides her eyes. Those were burning and even though any inhuman current had died down long ago, her eyes were glowing with the strength of bottled up feelings.

And Maes knew enough until know to foresee that things won't die down like down. Honestly he hoped he wouldn't be around when the cat will be out of the bag.

A.N. I want to thank everyone for the reviews/views/comments. It's just amazing I didn't think my story will reach this point when I started. I am just baffled. The views charts are off the charts(pun intended) and I just want to thank anyone following. You're simply the best. I hope you enjoy my story. Stay awesome!

The next update will be next week somewhere between Saturday and Sunday. Also since there's a possibility of me going in a school trip on Halloween I am joggling with the idea of a double update but we'll see.

*Me out*