Alchemic Surprises

Author: Atki Li Houjun

AN: I finally saw the whole series, minus the movie since it's not even in Japan yet o.o;, and have decided to use the Divergent Timeline card, at the last episode along with uh, episode 26 I think? Aka- Hughes is not dead. Personally, I don't think him living would actually effect the plot that much, except making Mustang a little less vengeful. The shooting did happen, it just barely missed his heart. Those who have seen the series will notice the different ending, those that haven't- Don't worry about it. ;. Since no suggestions were posted to me, I'm using my default idea. Ron's title will be based off of a little trick he did at the National Alchemist Exam. I tried to form the first part of this chapter to as close as the episode as possible, including some quotes, but since it's been a while since I've seen it they might be slightly different.

Chapter 2: Living Doll.

(Ron&Ed-12 years old; Al-11)

Fuhrer King Bradley smiled at the large group of assembled alchemists, all waiting their turn to do their Practical Exam, the last test to become qualified. Everyone was buzzing, nervous that they would have studied all these years for nothing. Out of the hundred alchemists that had made it thus far- only a few would pass.

The Fuhrer spoke aloud, voice calm with a hint of enthusiasm that had most of the crowd relax, if only slightly, "For your practical exam, you have all these materials before you to create something. Start."

A middle aged man went first, drawing a transmutation circle on the ground. The basic circle had a smaller triangle within it, upside down, with a larger one with only its points outside of the circle. He placed his hands upon the edge of the circle and drew up his energy. Blue lightening crackled around him and suddenly the ground rose up to the sky, touching the clouds. The man smiled, sweating lightly, but as he tried to stand the staff found all his energy had been sapped. He had to stay there to let his energy return.

One of the Generals smirked, "To make something of such height is impressive, but his tiredness is a weakness." The Fuhrer nodded as the next man decided to go.

He was cocky, a young man probably only in his early twenties, long hair and an expensive looking school uniform from one of the local colleges. He drew a large transmutation circle on the ground and cut a few trees from around it. A bucket of water was splashed upon the items and then he started to transmute them. Using the trees to make a large paper balloon and the water to form hydrogen gas he made a giant hydrogen balloon the size of a house. The balloon rose into the sky and suddenly, a part of the paper ripped.

Screams sounded from the ground as the balloon started to head towards the tower. No ones cry was louder than the man who created the tower. As the balloon forced the tower to crack rocks started to fall.

Edward acted fast and, without even drawing a transmutation circle, stood beneath the tower and reformed it.

What was left was a beautiful wreath of sakura blossoms, twisted up with the rock tower which had been reformed to look similar to a tree trunk. All Ed could do was stare at his gloved hands in wonder.

Mustang smirked to himself, "No transmutation circle, huh?"

After the incident the staff decided to take a small break in order to calm some of the alchemists-while writing a few off because of the extremity of panic some of them had. Ron had stopped being panicky a while ago. His attention was focused on only two things- How Ed managed to transmute without a circle, and what the hell he would do for the exam.

Ed sensed his nervousness easily enough and smiled slightly, "Why don't you do that one trick…" When Ron looked confused, he explained hastily, "You know, with the dolls you can make."

Ron rolled the idea in his head for a moment before nodding, "Sounds good enough, probably the only thing I can do here that is, well, complicated enough." He said with a slightly resigned sigh.

Both of them stood as the teams of Alchemists were once again herded to the courtyard.

Nervousness once again caught onto Ron's form, thus he let a few others go before him. When it was his turn he stepped up to the area, feeling Mustang's eyes watching his every move. He drew a more complicated circle upon the ground with a piece of chalk; an Alchemists best friend. The circle consisted of a hexagon with a circle in the middle, with a few more detailed works with in it. He pressed a single gloved finger from each hand on the edge of the circle and the ground drew itself up to about 5'6'' and started to form itself into a human body, coloring applied to it gently as pigment chemicals were altered. When it was finished there was an exact copy of Ron Elric standing before everyone.

People seemed only mildly impressed, but he wasn't quite done yet. He twisted his fingers slightly and the doll smiled and started to run, very fast. A few startled gasps erupted from both the Alchemists and the staff. When Ron caught view of Mustangs smirk, he was very tempted to have his doll punch him in the face. Luckily, he came to his senses quick enough to stop that thought process.

The Fuhrer started to clap along with Mustang and he was waved off for the next alchemist to take his place. Ron commanded the figure to dissolve with only a twist of his fingers, never noticing that that shouldn't have been possible without a circle. While his exam didn't nearly have the flare of Ed's, he felt good about it, especially when he saw Mustang very confident and smug smirk. Any other time and he would have punched him.

-----

Test Results:

Ronald Elric Edward Elric

12 12

12. March 3. March

Written Test: Passed Written Test: Passed

Interview: Passed Interview: Passed

Practical Exam: Passed Practical Exam: Passed

-----

Only a few weeks after their tests, Mustang called them up to his office, handing them each an envelope. "The Fuhrer has finally decided on your titles, which are, to say the least, very ironic."

Both of them opened their envelopes and read them carefully.

'I, Fuhrer King Bradley, have thus now decided upon the title of Edward Elric, and bestow upon him the second name of Full Metal.'

'I, Fuhrer King Bradley, have thus now decided upon the title of Ronald Elric, and bestow upon him the second name of Living Doll.'

Mustang surveyed them carefully, "There was also a small mishap from Hughes concerning your birthdates." He leveled them with a penetrating gaze, "As far as the department is concerned, you two are thought to be fraternal twins. Without legally being adopted by Edward's mother, you Ron are not considered an Elric. Thus you have two choices, you give a different last name, or one of you changes their birthdates so that they are identical. I think people would be highly suspicious if Mrs. Elric produced a child on March 3 and then only 11 days later had another child."

So thus, Ron was now officially born on March 3.

-----

(RonAl-15)(about 2 months after the event in the first chapter)

It was good to have normalcy again. While their lives were never quite normal to begin with, but it started to feel like they had been reborn. Al was sleeping gently in a cot nearby. Al and sleeping hadn't been used in a sentence for about 4 years. He was frail, and slightly feverish, but he was alive again. Since that day in the lost city underneath central, Ed and Ron haven't left his side, constantly petting his damp, soft, golden hair, murmuring gently into his ear and babying him without restraint. The few times Al had woken up, he wouldn't stop smiling, easily accepting the affection and absolutely loving the warmth he could feel from each lingering touch. For four years of his life, he couldn't smell, taste, touch, he never felt fatigue or pain, but neither could he feel the pleasure from simple things such as being hugged.

As days started to melt away Al gained his strength back. Along with a growth spurt. When Al had first come back he still looked as he did the day he lost his body; a small boy of only 10 years of age. As each day passed, though, he started to actually look like he was 15. This of course pissed Ed off. He thought for once his younger brother would finally be shorter than him and, while he was for a few days, Al had now officially grown an inch taller than Edward, and was still growing.

Winry, their childhood best friend and personal auto-mail mechanic just snorted into her cup of coffee, "Well, Ed, maybe if you would just start drinking milk for once, you'd actually become taller than some prepubescent little girl."

"Who are you calling someone so small that he couldn't even beat a child in an arm-wrestling match?!"

Ron raised a brow, "You're twisting words around again, Edo. Besides, she is right about the milk."

Ed snorted into his coffee, ready to drink it before it was snatched out of his hands by a certain redhead who smiled gently as him, "It would also help if you stopped drinking so much coffee. You'll stunt your growth."

"If he hasn't already," said Auntie Pinako, a short old lady who also worked at the auto-mail shop, being Winry's Grandmother.

Ed growled and tried to launch himself upon her, but Ron curled his arms up under Ed's and held him tightly, even as the blonde snarled and thrashed.

Al sat at the table, smiling sadly, looking almost apologetic. "Gomen ne, Niisan. It's not like I'm trying to become taller than you."

Ed frowned jokingly and stuck his tongue out, "Riight." He did calm down though and ended up sitting down next to Al, ruffling his hair lightly and shoving a piece of toast in his mouth with his metal arm.

Winry smiled sadly, swirling her coffee around, "You three are returning to Central tomorrow, right?"

They all nodded. Ron sipped at his mug lightly, "Even though we reached our goal, not everything is right. We promised Mustang that we would help him repair the city, even though the city isn't run by the Military anymore. The Parliament took over when they realized the chaos caused by the Fuhrer, but at least they're open to ideas."

-----

Sirius sighed for the fifth time in a row. And for the forth time in a row, Remus hit him lightly. The four of them were extremely tired.

After they had gone threw the veil, onto the other side of the world, it had taken them two months to locate Central City, the bustling zone of Alchemists and the main militia. The only thing now left to do was to grab Ron, possibly knock him out if they had too, and drag him back to that abandoned church in the desert.

Being as filthy as they were, Tonks finally insisted they take out a hotel room and get fully rested and cleaned. Her excuse, those that look ragged look evil and mean; Ron might run from them. None of the men looked ready to protest, not that they wanted to.

Asking everyone they could on information of a Ronald Weasley, all they found was that there was an Alchemist by the name of Ronald 'Elric', one of the famous Elric brothers, who was known under the title of Living Doll. So, for their first course of action, they were going to locate whether this Ron was the one they were looking for.

-----

Remus took on his most authoritive tone and poise, pacing back and forth acrossed the room while the other three sat. "Alright, we have found information of a Ronald 'Elric' living in the Military dorms, holding an odd title of Living Doll-"

Sirius snorted, "He's probably a stripper or something" he mumbled.

Remus paused to level a glare on him before returning to his pacing, "Said person has said to have been spotted arriving the other day by train with his brothers and heading back to the capital building. Witnesses say it is a tall boy with red hair and freckles, and has golden colored eyes. The only thing we know for sure that the real Ron has is gold eyes. We can only assume, being a Weasley child, that he should have freckles and that, unless he dyed his hair, it should be red." He stopped his pacing and stood in the middle of the room, "Our objective is to figure out whether this is the child we are looking for and, if it is, to take him back through the veil with as little of hassle as possible."

The four left the hotel room quietly, toeing around the front desk and left the building without paying.

-----

They decided to transmute the two beds into one giant one the first day they had returned. It had become normal for them to all share the same bed after Al had become flesh and blood again.

They had only been here for two days and were never called up by Mustang for anything concerning missions quite yet. People occasionally visited them, but they tended to be in the Colonel's office anyway with most of the staff, usually fooling around since, like their superior, the staff had a habit of leaving work for the last minute, save when Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye was around, since she had no qualms about planting bullets in their heads. Minus Al of course, since he was the only one that technically didn't work there and the only one that never pissed her off.

Ron had transmuted a chess board from an empty box and was currently playing Edward. Ed had already been caught cheating a few times, trying to transmute his pieces into Queens or Rooks to gain the upper hand.

Al was curled up against Ron's left side, avoiding the cold metal arm on the right, dozing lightly with his nose tucked under Ron's neck. Havoc, a tall man in his late 20's or so with short spiky light brown hair, was playing a game of poker with Breda, a fairly rounded man in his early 30's with short dull orange colored hair, both wearing their standard military outfits as required by all staff, not that Ron and Ed ever listened to that. Fury, a short bubbly man in his mid-20's was sorting files. Farman, a tall soldier of 35 or so with white and grey hair, was out running errands for Mustang. Mustang himself was busying planning out his dates.

Colonel Roy Mustang was a notorious womanizer. His handsome looks could catch him almost any woman he wanted. Luxurious black hair framed his head lightly, fairly long considering that most men kept up with the Military's standard crew cut. Dark eyes could easily capture any fair maiden's attention, black with flecks of dark blue and grey. And then, of course, his calm, cool, mysterious soldier personality. Though he looked to be in his fairly early 20's, most people of the staff knew he was at least 28, if not slightly older.

He was the only one not wearing their uniform jacket, which was hung neatly on the back of his chair. Breda, even though it seemed he grew out of it a long time ago, still wore his jacket, though it was almost always unbuttoned. Hawkeye had gone to a meeting in place of the Colonel to give him a break from the unusual amount of meetings there had been lately, leaving the eight guys time to relax quietly.

That is, until, 2nd Lieutenant Maes Hughes burst into the room. He was tall, taller than Roy and even Ron, and had short black hair and neatly trimmed stubble along his chin, making him seem almost a bit rugged. The small squared glasses usually ended that idea, but it didn't end it as quickly as Hughes major quirk did.

"Ahh! Everyone, guess what? I have a bunch of new pictures of Elysia to show you all! I know I know, you are all excited to see her absolute adorableness caught in my stunning photography. You all wish you could have been there to see it happen live though, don't you?"

Hughes truly adored his daughter, Elysia. A family man to the bone, he made sure to take every picture he could of her and made sure to share it with everyone he knew, even some of those he didn't.

Unfortunately, he was blocking the door. The only exit had been removed, so now it was time to suffer through it. By the end of the hour long picture show, everyone pretty much had their energy sapped away. He wasn't leaving yet though.

"Well you three, how was your trip back to Rizenbull? Everything going on alright?"

Ron nodded for the three of them. Al had luckily stayed asleep through the whole thing, but Maes had let it go. "We basically partied the entire time, in celebration of Al getting his body back."

Maes grinned, "Alphonse does look a lot cuter like this." His glasses caught a shine to them, hiding his eyes, "But of course-" he rose his voice some, "He will never be as cute as my Elysia-chan!"

Al yawned softly and snuggled even closer to Ron, a hand curling round his waist. One could easily see the 'aww' ready to fall from everyone's lips, but, being men, they decided to keep a little of their dignity.

Hughes ended up staying a bit longer, but generally kept from talking about his daughter, sparing what ever was left of everyone's sanity. Mustang ended up getting into a verbal battle with Edward, of which he was winning quite easily by making subtle 'shorty' comments. Al woke up and he and Ron started to play poker with Havoc and Breda. Al was easily beating the other three, of which only Ron knew that he was actually a very good player at any game.

Besides those few changes, the men were still happily lounging about all the way until dinner came. After that, Breda and Farman would be done for the day and soon so would Fury and Havoc, who were mysteriously disappearing at odd times in the day and usually returned disheveled and flushed. Hawkeye and Mustang usually left later in the night, unless Mustang had a date anyway. Since Al, Ron and Ed were basically 'freelance' employee's who rarely had any actual work besides missions to do, they left when they wanted.

"Ne, Aru, Edo- You wanna go eat out or something? The cafeteria food here upset my stomach yesterday," Ron said as he stood.

Al nodded, also standing and putting the cards back in their box, "The food here never seemed very good and now that I've tried it, I know it isn't. But, it's free."

Ed stretched out, cracking his back against the back of the couch, "We have plenty of money right now since we didn't need to buy Winry anything."

The three of them set out to one of the nicer restaurants, ordering their usual large meal. Ron was set on edge however when four oddly dressed people walked in. He had seen them following them through the streets and had pressed the other two into taking a 'short cut' to throw them off, never mentioning to them why they were taking the back alleys.

They all seemed to him as if they were dressed for a cult meeting with their dark voluminous robes, and the one with pink hair… he didn't even want to know. When the sandy colored one caught his eye he quickly looked away, deciding the floor was much more interesting.

Al blinked at him slightly, pressing the back of his hand to Ron's cheek, "Are you feeling alright, Niisan?"

Ron nodded quickly, pushing Al's hand down to the table and rubbing his fingers lightly, pointedly never looking up even as the four figures drew closer.

"Excuse me, are you by chance Ronald Elric?" The sandy haired man asked with the gentle but stern voice he used while in the classroom.

Ron finally raised his head, looking at all of them warily, "Yes, I am." Ed was half glaring at them for their intrusion upon his meal time while Al looked nervous and gripped Ron's hand tightly.

The sandy haired man looked to his companions before looking at Ron again, "Then you'll be coming with us."

That's when all hell broke loose. While the four of them were casting Petrificus Totalus like their lives depended on it, Ron, Ed and Al were putting up stone walls and running around the entire building dodging the spells, never one using a transmutation circle which the two certified ones were known for.

Just as Ron was transmutating his auto-mail into a sword, he was hit from behind by the pink haired woman with the body bind spell. She cast Wingardium Leviosa on his rigid form and quickly ran out of the building with her three companions following closely behind. Though it had taken them two months to locate this city, they remembered exactly where the veil was. What they never noticed, however, were two very irate blondes following closely behind them, nor the three military personnel that also decided to give chase.

AN: Congratulate me people! I just wrote the longest chapter of my life! Review please! I'm having fun writing this, the most fun I've ever had with writing! I hope you are too.

Special thanks to the single person who did review me already: Chibi-NarutoKawaii .