Warning: We've reached the Nina chapter but frankly there is nothing I can do that's worse than the original, so please enjoy the gory details of karma.

Chapter 9 - The Sewing Life Alchemist

Ed had a very bad feeling about Shou Tucker. Just because Ed had an awesome father didn't mean he couldn't spot a shit one. Actually, between Hohenheim and Maes, maybe he was especially qualified.

If Mrs. Tucker left, she would have taken Nina with her.

So where the fuck was she?

Ed kept glancing at Maes, Mustang, and the others. They all seemed fine. Ed felt a little crazy for seeing the signs, for suspecting what a man might do to his wife for science.

Of course, it wasn't really about the science, it was for the power, the money, and reputation for making a chimera.

Like that shit hadn't been done by State already.

Ed would like nothing better than to march into Shou's house and rip the place apart. Even if he hadn't done anything to Mrs. Tucker, Ed still hated him for what he did to those animals.

But Ed couldn't act, not without revealing what he knew about human transmutation. None of his studies reflected even a passing glance to it and he doubted Hawkeye or Armstrong had been able to understand what he was translating from Marcoh's book on the train to Loire.

"But I want to go," Nina said, still teary eyed.

"No," he said, harsher than he meant to.

"Ed," Maes chastised.

But he only shook his head, ignoring the adults and kneeling in front of Nina. "I'm sorry, Nina. I just need you to trust me. Today is going to be very long and very boring. Alexander can't come—"

"Persephone hasn't come back from the vet," Nina said quietly.

Persephone was a shepherd mix who had been Alexander's mother. The dog had broken its leg and had to stay home for the last month or so. Persephone had an adoration of Mrs. Tucker, as attached to her mistress as Alexander was to Nina.

"I'm sure she'll be okay," Ed said, even if his brain blurred with more warning bells.

Shou specialised in animal sciences, why the fuck would he need to take a dog to the vet for something as simple as a broken bone, that by all rights, should have healed by now.

Persephone was a young dog, she had been only two years old when she had her litter.

Fuck. Where had the rest of the litter gone?

Shaking himself, he said, "Listen, Nina, Elicia needs you to be here. You're her older sister and she was scared last night. Your dad has a big day today, if he doesn't get certified, he will be sad to fail in front of you, and if he does get it, then you will be here to help Gracia set up his party, right?"

Nina looked at him for a long moment, sapphire blue eyes seeing right through him. Suddenly, she threw herself at him in a hug, "Okay, Big Brother, I'll stay."

Ed let out a sigh of relief, hugging her back, "Thank you."

If it were Al, nothing short of outright lying, and taping him to a bed, would have kept him away.

But then Al and Ed were closer in age, plus Ed had baited her with taking care of Elicia. It wouldn't be wrong to say that Elicia was Nina's Alphonse.

Riza could clearly see Ed's distress. Despite Nina giving in to his request, Riza was almost certain the young alchemist had a hundred more reasons why Nina shouldn't come to her father's presentation.

There were a number of innocent reasons for this, but Ed seemed almost panicked about it.

She watched Maes and Roy exchange looks as they exited the house.

There was enough of them that they took two separate cars. Roy got in beside Riza, Falman and Fury in the back.

"Do you know why he's so upset?" Riza asked as they followed Maes's car.

Roy frowned, "Not exactly. Some have been saying Shou is riding in on Marcoh's coat tails."

Riza grimaced, Marcoh would have been a great man, if he had stayed a doctor.

"I can see how someone can have a distaste for chimaera work," Falman said.

"Did you know if Nina has confided in him?" Riza asked.

Roy nodded, "She talks to Edward more than Gracia, Maes told me."

Riza tried to let the worry go, but seeing Edward's obvious concern and seriousness, she couldn't help but want to trust his instincts.

Ed was bored to tears with the research alchemists looking for State certifications.

The researchers had different days of presentation than what Ed and Mustang held.

Yes, they were valued as highly as Majors but they didn't hold rank in the military themselves. It was a pretty paycheck for an intense amount of turn over.

There were lots of weapons developers. Several nearly blew themselves up in front of the small crowd.

The crowd was mostly made up of other officer State Alchemists and other Researching State Alchemists, and their military guard. Which probably tripled the size of what the crowd should have been. Alchemists showed up to these events because it is one of the only times living alchemists shared their work openly.

Ed sighed as one of the researchers purposed the overlaying of metals.

It wasn't that the research wasn't valid but his purposed uses would be an utter waste of time given the information was already available. The current theories were testing chemical reactions between layers and exposed gases. What this guy was suggesting was just trying to overlay until every option and thickness was tired without accounting for the chemical reactions. As if metal could remain stable in use while being functional.

Even inert, metals were far too conductive to not affect each other. If one metal had positively charged ions and another negatively charged ions, the presence of the other would cause advanced erosion.

"You could have applied for this, you know," Mustang said with a smirk.

Ed glowered, "I'd rather deal with military officers than being surrounded by a bunch of idiots inept at their jobs."

"Oh, thanks, Major," Havoc said.

"Here comes Tucker," Maes warned.

Shou came out with a giant crate and he began to explain his research, each word becoming more horrific than the last.

Memory manipulation and inserting a person's will onto another by alchemically rewriting their natures.

Shou pulled on a string and the holed box opened, "The jewel of my research!"

The creature inside was the mix of a herding dog with a lion like mane of dark blonde hair with red undertones.

Shou's smile was manic, "A talking chimaera!"

Ed recognised the pattern on the dog, its multi-coloured fur, white, grey, tan, and black; Persphone.

And contrasting against the fur was human hair, the same colour as Mrs. Tucker.

It took all Ed was not to react. He looked up at the others, eyes all following the chimaera, they looked disgusted and grim, but none of them seemed to see what Ed did.

Mrs. Tucker and/or Persphone whimpered, hunching in on themselves.

Shou glowered at his tortured wife, and said quietly that only those closest could hear. "Speak, damn you."

Mrs. Tucker raised her muzzle, sniffed the air, then looked straight at Ed as she said in a tone that was far away and yet soul shakingly audible, "I want to die."

Ed froze, unable to decide how to proceed.

He looked up to his father, but Maes was only frowning, not outraged as he should have been to find a family friend suffering like this.

The crowd began to clap, though thankfully, Maes, Mustang and their teams did not. But they didn't start yelling threats or warnings either.

Ed would need to find his own proof before he could go to anyone with his suspicions.

If a man was willing to do this to his wife, he would never stop until he was stopped forcefully.

Ed would kill him before he let him take Nina back. He wished he could trust Mustang enough, wished he could convince the older man to commit a crime, because Ed wanted nothing more than to set fire to bit Tucker's home and destroy every ill-begotten research he had ever dared to scrape together.

He was certain it wouldn't be easy to escape his guard but he would manage. He stood at ceremony while Tucker was awarded a researcher's pin, marking him a State Alchemist.

Fuhrer Bradley himself pinned it on Tucker's lapel, naming him the Sewing Life Alchemist.

Ed did his best to swallow his fury as he went home to Nina and her father's party.

Maes watched Edward carefully that night. Shou was too pleased with himself and the money he would be getting to let himself be upset by anything. Ed, however, looked angrier than Maes had ever seen him and his quietness made his anger all that more apparent for those who knew him.

Luckily, Shoa didn't seem to notice.

Nina's opinion on the matter was the most heartbreaking, "Now that Daddy's a State Alchemist, Mommy's going to come home now. Isn't she, Daddy?"

Shou looked grieved at this, "I hope so, Nina, I hope so."

Edward excused himself to go to bed early, where Maes was certain he would be trying to lose himself in his work.

He would only learn the next day, how worried he should have been.

Ed locked his bedroom door and climbed out the window, shutting it before dropping do the ground.

The Tucker House wasn't far and climbing in through an upstairs window wasn't difficult.

He went straight to the basement, knowing from Nina's stories where the animals were, even without the smell he followed.

He spent a great deal of time looking through Shou's notes, finding the most incriminating bits of research and setting them aside on a pile on the desk. Getting into the lab without tripping circles was not as tricky as Shou would have doubtless liked it to be.

The animals in their cages were feral or dying or both. Some were exotic and others were common pets, and the majority of them were blobs of flesh and fur that twitched and yowled in pain.

"Edward."

Ed spun, freezing when he saw Nina's mother.

her large fuzzy ears drooped, "Kill me?"

Ed was afraid to touch her, afraid of causing more pain.

"I'm going to get you out of here," he promised.

Mrs. Tucker only whimpered, "I want to die."

He took a step forward and blue light burst above him. "No."

The array shone above him and one formed beneath him under a dirty rug.

Fuck.

Fuck.

He had just fucked himself over with his own arrogance. Of course, Mrs. Tucker would be the thing he was most protective of. And looking up, Mrs. Tucker was tied to the wall with a thin rope just beyond the reach of the circles.

Why thin rope? Because every move Mrs. Tucker took drew a whimper of pain from her.

Ed dropped to his knees as he looked up to figure out the array.

It was a human transmutation circle, and by walking into it, he had just become one half the being it was meant to transmute.

Now caught in an active transmutation, he was afraid to break the circle. If he broke it now, chances were it would explode whatever was caught inside of it in a rebound, which was him. With his every motion feeling sluggish and weak, he forced himself to look, to read, to study, the array. Every piece of it.

He had never wanted to learn more of this, but if he was going to survive this, stop Shou before he could do this to Nina, then perhaps, he had lost his limbs for nothing.

Perhaps leaving Al could be forgiven, or at least worth the pain.

"Nina?" Mrs. Tucker asked in a strained and confused voice.

Tears spilled unbidden down Ed's cheeks and turned to look up at the ceiling, "I'll stop him. I promise, Nina is going to survive this. She will be safe and live a full life."

Hopefully, his guards would get paranoid enough to test his boundaries, his family probably wouldn't.

Which Ed had never thought could backfire on him like this.

Gracia came downstairs with a strained smile, "Shou, I'm sorry, the girls went to sleep on us."

Maes watched Shou tense then sigh, "I really hate to take this much advantage of your hospitality."

"Nonsense," Maes said. "Nina is like a daughter to us."

Anger flashed on Shou's face but he ducked his head, "I can only thank you. But I need to get back to feed my chimaeras."

"Nina is welcome to stay the night," Gracia said.

Maes could feel the tension in the room rise.

Armstrong had shown up to this little celebration and there was simply no love lost between any of them. Roy and Armstrong watched Shou as if he was the confirmation they were looking for that Laboratory 5 was as active as they believed.

Shou finally bowed his head, "Thank you, I'll be back in the morning. Perhaps Elicia would like to go house shopping with Nina and I?"

Over my dead body, Maes thought as he said. "I think Edward promised to take them all to the park tomorrow, they may be a tad tired afterwards."

Shou nodded stiffly, "Goodnight, Hughes."

"Night," Maes said, not bothering to get up and not even Gracia walked him to the door.

It was Maria who locked the door after him.

"I see why Edward dislikes him," she said.

"Sick bastard," Roy conquered. "I don't blame the wife for leaving."

"I blame her for not taking Nina with her," Gracia said.

Maes grabbed a plate and cut a slice of cake, "I'll see if I can lure Ed back down now that he's gone."

He went upstairs and knocked on Ed's door, "Edward, Shou's gone and Nina is staying the night with Elicia."

No response.

Maes sighed, "Are you going to tell me what about today upset you so much?"

Again, no response.

"I have cake," Maes bribed, leaning his forehead against the door. If he had been unsure about Ed trying human transmutation before, after today, Maes was certain. "Please talk to me."

Nothing.

Maes hesitated, but then tried to open the door.

It was locked, it was never locked. Not even when he snuck out to see his friends in the lower parts of the city did he lock the door.

Maes sighed, "We'll talk tomorrow then."

Despite Maes's urge to break the door down, he forced himself to respect his son's wish to be left alone and battle whatever nightmares he was facing on his own.

oOo

Edward had the array figured out, it was cruder than the one in Marcoh's book and despite being more complicated than the one Edward had drawn when he was eleven, it lacked a deeper understanding of the composition of the body.

This array was more a wish in the dark than a science. Which, given how many different animals he had trapped down here, made some sense. Shou couldn't have been an expert in any of them, hence the nightmare creatures that looked as if they were trying to kill themselves.

Martel had told him how painful becoming a chimaera was, how few survived, but Martel, Roa, and Dolcetto were all Marcoh's creations and had been merged successfully with their animal counterparts.

Mrs. Tucker was not a success story.

The door to the basement opened and Ed turned to face the true monster. He clapped his hands together letting his own power build as Shou prowled into his laboratory.

Mrs. Tucker growled.

"Edward Elric-Hughes," Shou said. "I would say I'm surprised but I would be lying."

"You sick fuck," Ed retorted.

"My research will revolutionize the future."

"Marcoh got you beat by a decade or two, dickhead."

Shou stiffened, "We're equals now, Hughes."

"I'd say congratulations on becoming a dog, but that's an insult to dogs," Ed said, baring his teeth. "And equals? You aren't worth the oil on my metallic toe."

"Unfortunately," Shou said. "I'm out of puppies. But I think a monkey would suit you just fine, you insufferable brat. You turned my own daughter against me."

"I think," Ed said, "and this is just a theory, killing her mother and one of the family dogs might have been the kicker."

"Nina doesn't know."

"She's smarter than you give her credit for."

"She wouldn't know if you hadn't told her anything," Shou said, walking among his cages.

"I never talk to my sisters about alchemy. Nina knows because these animals cry and smell. Unlike you, she cares about the lives of beings other than her own."

Shou pulled a gun off his table, "Shut up! I'll do worse to you than you have the imagination for."

Edward sneered, "Your imagination, like your intelligence, is not better than my own."

"You aren't worthy of becoming one of my creations!" Shou flicked the safety off, pointed, and fired.

Edward was almost grateful, he would rather die than become one of Shou's creations.

And his father would never leave his murder unsolved.

Nina would be safe.

But the bullet never struck him.

A furred form jumped in front of Ed with a choked cry as the rope snapped.

"No!" Ed cried.

Mrs. Tucker fell to the ground in front of him, blood pooling around her as she heaved on the ground.

Shou dropped the gun, "No, no, my chimaera!" He looked at Ed with hatred burning in his eyes. "She's still alive, you will save her with your own life."

Shou stepped forward, getting to his knees to finish the activated circle Mrs. Tucker and Ed were trapped in.

Edward called everything he had in him, his hands having been pressed together this whole time. He waited so that he hit the floor with both hands as Shou touched the circle together.

Ed took Shou's power and over rode the monster's will and intention.

The circle glowed brighter, blue-white.

"How?" Shou asked, eyes going wide.

"You're not the only person in the world fool enough to learn the forbidden."

Shou's eyes widened further, "That's how you knew—"

The circle suddenly turned red.

"What!? You have a stone!?" Shou exclaimed.

Edward remembered that yes, he had one of Marcoh's stones in his pocket but he didn't alternate his focus from the transmutation as he forced the array to abide by his will.

The world went white, and suddenly he was back in the nothingness before a door and a being he never wished to see again.

It was past midnight and everyone looked like they were ready to turn in aside from Maes who looked as if he wanted to be pacing in worry. Now, however, he was just tapping his fingers against his knees.

"Just go wake him up," Roy said.

Maes shook his head. "He locked his door."

"Why would he lock the door?" Gracia asked.

Brosh snorted, "He's a teenage boy."

"Edward has never locked his door," Gracia said, clearly worried.

Roy watched Maes struggle with himself before standing and going upstairs. Roy followed him.

Maes knocked on Ed's door, "Edward Elric-Hughes, if you don't unlock this door, I will unlock it for you."

No reply came so Maes knelt and from his belt, pulled a small lock picking kit.

Roy snorted, leaning against the wall, "Of course, you have one of those."

"Intelligence agent, not all of us can rely on fancy doodles."

Roy rolled his eyes.

It took Maes twenty seconds to turn over the simple lock. And probably only that long to give Edward a heads up someone was coming in.

Only, once they opened the door, they learned why the Fullmetal Alchemist had been so quiet.

Because he wasn't there.

Maes cursed and Roy found himself racing out the door with his friend, their subordinate officers scrambling after them.

"We meet again, Edward Elric-Hughes."

Ed said nothing as he looked around.

He was alone, neither of the Tuckers were with him.

"They stand before their own gates, though, your choices will define the array." Truth smiled at him, it's body white save for the two limbs it had taken from Edward all those years ago. "Have you come for your limbs?"

Ed shook his head. If he somehow survived this, he couldn't let anyone realize he had performed human transmutation before, getting his flesh limbs back would be a dead giveaway.

Truth's smile faded a bit as it cocked its head, "Why ever not?"

"Because it was the cost of my stupidity and I've made peace with it."

Truth was silent for a moment, "But you have the means to afford it."

Edward was confused until he remembered the red glow. He unzipped his pants pocket and pulled out Marcoh's stone.

"A thousand souls for two limbs, you needn't sacrifice any more of yourself."

Ed had been so focused on negating Shou's alchemy, in reversing the energy at the same rate as to undo the change before the change could take form.

As if reading his thoughts, Truth said, "You were successful in outmatching and outwitting your opponent. You understood what he was doing better than he did and had the strength to overpower him even being within the circle. You did so without using the stone, most impressive, Alchemist. But now that you are here, what is it you wish of me?"

Ed frowned at him, "You're not a wish granter."

Truth laughed, "If you ask for nothing, Shou Tucker will take your intention from you and you will wake to his mercy."

Edward sighed, looking down at the stone in his hand. "Can you release them?"

"What?" Truth asked, sounding confused.

"Can you release the souls from the stone?"

"That will not bring them back to life," Truth warned.

"I know, but they deserve the dignity to die."

"You've learned your lessons, I see."

"Can you do it?"

Truth smiled without eyes, "I can, but that leaves us uneven. To release the souls will generate a great deal of power. It would leave me in your debt. I need you to ask something of me."

"I don't want anything from you," Ed said, unwilling to be tricked. He would not ask for anything that would affect the physical world. He might ask for something that was worth more than the releasing of souls.

Truth pouted, "I will grant you three questions. And I will answer them truthfully. Knowledge in exchange for the power you gave freely."

"Fine," Ed snapped, holding out the stone.

The stone floated into Truth's hand and shattered like rain against a windshield.

A thousand cries of delight sounded and disappeared into the white abyss.

"Free," Truth said. "A thousand souls have gone to the next life. Now, ask your questions."

Even having been told by his father and Greed, Ed had to ask, "The thing I created, was it my mother?"

"No," Truth said. It touched its leg that had once been Ed's, "A leg for an organic form and an arm for a soul pulled from purgatory, the in-between, where souls linger unable to move on. You didn't have enough knowledge to create an enduring body, so when it died, the soul was able to move on. A minute of life was enough to free it from death."

Just as Greed had said.

"Are the souls you freed from the stone trapped in purgatory or were they able to move on too?" Ed asked.

"They moved on, Alchemist, past their own Gates," Truth replied. "One last question."

"Can a Homunculus become human?"

Truth roared with laughter.

Ed frowned and waited, biting his tongue to keep from asking another question.

He had only been allowed three.

When Truth finally calmed enough to answer, "Yes, it is possible. Homunculi are creatures born of alchemy, but their souls are their own, no matter what their maker gave them, their souls are as much a part of them as any that belong to an infant who takes their first breath beyond the womb."

Ed nodded.

Truth shook his head, "You ask nothing for yourself, Alchemist. Never has a being of intention come here and remained selfless. Such novelty deserves a reward, I do hope you enjoy my gift."

Panic ceased Ed as a door behind him opened, hands reaching out to him, "Wait—"

Truth laughed, "Till we meet again, Fullmetal Alchemist."

Ed screamed as the flesh on his left arm and hand was torn into with the intensity of a brand as shadow hands pulled him back into reality.

And just like the last time he saw things he didn't want to see.

The could have beens.

Every time you opened the Gate, you learned something about the world and yourself.

Last time Ed had seen what would have happened to Al had he been with Ed that night. Torn apart, taken entirely, and Edward trading his arm to bind Al's soul to armour.

Damning him to a life without sleep or sensation. Just knowledge and metal.

Ed could never forgive himself for it, even if it hadn't happened, it could have.

What he learned this time was different only because he wouldn't have been the one at fault.

But it was still a new nightmare, and just like Al's soul trapped to armour, this nightmare would stay with him forever.

Nina forged into a chimaera with Alexander.

Trapped in torment forever.

This is why humans were not meant to be gods.

oOo

Edward woke to a wet tongue licking his cheek and eyelids. He raised his head, slowly to look up at Persephone.

Not the chimaera who was Mrs. Tucker, but the dog who was a painted mutt bred for the purpose of herding sheep in open fields.

Ed reached up to stroke her soft ear as he pushed himself up, hoping like hell he hadn't lost another limb.

Both automail limbs were there as were his two flesh ones. He was unchanged save for the scar he could still feel on his left arm. Even beneath his clothes and gloves, he could feel it.

Truth had branded him.

Someone screamed.

Ed jerked his gaze upward and Persphone began growling.

It took a moment for him to accept what his eyes were seeing.

Shou Tucker was alive and had paid a toll of his own to Truth.

Not with limbs, but in organs like Teacher.

The largest organ Tucker had had been taken —as well as his clothes. Tucker got to his feet screaming in agony completely naked, without a bit of skin.

He didn't even have eyelids. He was a red ruin of pulsing muscles and fat bare to the dank air of the lab.

Oxygen was a corrosive gas and not meant for open flesh.

Shou screamed as he looked down at himself with exposed, unblinking eyes.

He would die of blood loss or infection. No one should have survived losing their skin, but Truth had done what no human could manage, skinning a person alive without damaging anything else.

He must have felt like one exposed nerve.

Ed punched through the floor at the circle's edge with his metal hand so it couldn't be reactivated.

The room was deafeningly loud as Tucker's screams sat off all the animals. Persephone stayed pressed to Ed's side as he righted himself.

Which is when he saw her.

Mrs. Tucker slumped on the floor beside him, her long hair spilled around her, the blood from her wounds were gone, the bullet she had protected Ed from had fallen out, leaving behind a bullet hole over her heart.

Her skin was so white.

Had she still been alive when the transmutation had activated?

When he touched her she rolled over completely to her back, limp and lifeless, staring upward with sightless sapphire eyes.

All the blood in her body was gone, leaving her looking like a porcelain doll. Her expression was lax, freed of pain.

She had died protecting Ed, but she had also died completely human.

Persephone whined, pressing against his side and nosing Mrs. Tucker's cheek.

Ed slipped off his red coat and draped it over her naked form.

She didn't deserve to be left down here. He picked her up as he stood.

"No!" Shou screamed. "I paid for success!"

Ed realized his intentions had been filled, he had reversed the array and attempted to keep the organic forms stable.

With Shou paying a toll, Persephone and Mrs. Tucker had been untied. Possibly Mrs. Tucker had paid her own toll but with one dead thing had been separated from a living being, Persephone, the dog and the human had returned to their own natural forms without a higher price needed.

Ed hugged the body to his chest. She was a taller person than Ed but thin and without much muscle. She was not a burden to carry as he walked away from the skinless monster.

"They're mine!" Shou shrieked, trying to move past his own agony.

Persephone growled.

Ed turned, raising his arm just in time that the bullets hit and ricochet off his automail arm. The stray bullets hit a monster and another chimaera in a cage.

"Run, Persephone!" Ed yelled as he took his own advice.

He had just survived a human transmutation relatively unscathed. He wasn't about to die from a stupid bullet now.

Persephone raced ahead, somehow getting the doors open.

Smart dog.

Ed made it outside to the cold night air as Shou screamed from below in his self-made hell.

Maes slammed the brakes so hard Roy was surprised the airbags didn't go off. Riza caught Roy before he could go through the window.

Maes barely put the car in park before he was leaping out of the door. The two cars following them, shrieked as they twisted to a stop making a blockade on the road.

It took Roy a second longer than it should have to spot what had caused Maes to stop so suddenly.

Edward was sitting on the curbside, a mostly naked woman slumped lifeless in his arms and a dog sitting beside her.

It was Mrs. Tucker and Roy knew she was dead by the way her head dipped back, her mouth parted, empty eyes staring into the night without motion.

Roy and Riza went to stand guard as Maes knelt beside him, "Edward, what happened?"

Ed blinked at his father, eyes haunted and reactions delayed as if he was hurt or in shock. "I need to go to a hospital. I don't think I lost anything but they need to count."

"Count what?" Armstrong asked, approaching in a near run, Ross and Havoc behind him.

"Organs," Edward said, looking down at the body in his arms who he had wrapped in his own coat. "Truth took her blood."

"What?" Maes demanded harshly.

Armstrong stepped forward, "I'll take her, Fullmetal."

Edward flinched back, "She saved me. She gave her life for mine— I…" He looked away from them

"I'll keep her safe," Armstong said, softening his voice. "Let your father get you to the hospital."

Edward let Armstrong take the body but he didn't rise to his feet. Maes's hands fluttered and Roy realized he was nervous to touch his son.

Fullmetal was in shock, he might panic if they forced him up or made him feel crowded.

Roy signalled to his men to stand back.

Edward must have seen the motion because he jerked round, standing to his feet and lurching forward to grab at Roy's arm. His golden eyes blazed with emotions Roy could not begin to understand, "Burn it. Burn it all."

Roy blinked but nodded, laying a hand over the boy's.

Edward flinched as if the touch had hurt but he didn't let go.

"Burn everything," Edward implored as Maes pulled him away from Roy.

"I will," Roy promised turning to look up the street to where lights were turning on.

"End him," Maes said without mercy as Roy turned back to catch his gaze.

Roy nodded and then walked up the street.

It was not hard to find the Tucker house.

One only had to follow the screaming. The small house sat in darkness between the alarmed lights of the neighbours.

"Be quick," Riza said as he, Havoc and Fuery followed her lead.

They went to the basement where they watched a horrific man shaped monster execute the loudest animals point blank with a gun.

The monster ran out of bullets before running out of crying animals. Though the survivors looked like they wanted death, mostly chimaeras or animals slumped on the floor of their cages missing limbs and hardly breathing.

Roy snapped his fingers, cutting through the animals at the necks, the flames killing them before their brains could translate the pain or fear.

The monster was, Roy realized in disgust, a man who had been skinned alive.

"Flame Alchemist," it hissed.

Roy's eyes widened.

Riza snarled from behind Roy, "Shou Tucker."

"Fullmetal took her from me!" Shou screeched. "She was mine! He stole my research from me!"

Not his wife, but his research.

Roy looked around at the room, at the arrays. He knew enough to recognize human transmutation when he saw it.

Why Mr. Tucker was missing his skin and Mrs. Tucker her blood answered itself.

"The chimaera today was your wife," Riza stated.

Edward had known that from the moment he saw her. Maybe he had even suspected the night before when Mrs. Tucker had disappeared without taking her daughter with her.

"She was going to leave me! She didn't believe in me! I made her believe! Now my daughter will have everything she could possibly want! I have achieved everything! I am the Sewing-Life Alchemist."

"You're wrong," Roy said. "You've taken everything from your daughter. But at least you can die knowing she will be loved and cared for."

Gracia was Nina's godmother.

Shou laughed, manic and crazed, "I will remake the world in my image!"

Burn it all.

Roy took a breath, "No thanks."

He snapped his fingers.

Unlike with the animals, Roy didn't kill him fast.

He had executed too many people in his life and the way he figured it, few of those people deserved it as much as Shou Tucker did.

By the time reinforcements showed up, the Tucker house and everything in, had been burned to ash.

Tucker died with his research, and while it was a pity Nina had lost all her and her mother's belongings as well, it seemed a small price to pay to ensure that none of the so-called Sewing Life Alchemist's work would ever see the light of day.

AN: I am doing a new thing for me and updating every Friday, there will be at least 23 chapters and I am halfway done with them. Please, please, if you have feedback or desire on additional character beats please comment or review?