Thanks
for the kind reviews!
You know, this is actually a lot more fun
when I watch the respective episode as a background…:-)) Aaand: I
can already promise you eight parts of this story, which in the end
would not stray from the original story-line of the anime.
It's compatible. :-))
Enjoy
Brynn
Chapter 1: Dog Test
"So, did you decide to take the test?"Haven't I said that thousand times over? I know you listened – you listen to everything that's going on around you. Do you think I'm stupid? Blind? Indecisive?
And Al, as always, is going to take it with me. I still don't know if it's a good idea. And still it's my only… And Al will stay by my side. He does that. I don't dare imagine what would happen to me if he left.
"Of course!" I hear myself saying with the kind of childish enthusiasm that's expected of me… and a bit more sarcasm, but I guess I can't suppress that. Mustang-guy wouldn't believe my ultra-innocent act anyway. I have attempted a human transmutation and he knows it. No point trying to deny it, then.
"Shall I wag my tail while I'm at it?"
He's smiling. He had anticipated that. Now he thinks he knows me inside out and can predict each of my steps. I hope I'll never be accused of transparency, Colonel.
"Very well…"That was long ago, and since then I've learnt so many things… how to talk to little children. Where do they come from (though I've had the medical part down for quite some time). How rich do National Alchemists get. How to transmute things without drawing a circle.
I didn't tell Al. He doesn't need to know… not yet… because now it all makes perfect sense. How Sensei always could transmute things just by clapping. Why she warned us so strictly against human transmutation. And why she's sick.
Not everyone misses something as obvious as a hand.
I'm getting distracted… instead of writing the answers I'm musing… and the only chance on being enrolled in the military anytime soon is slipping through my fingers. Al's too studious – he's going to do better on this part than I… and that's the trouble. Because for all Mustang's knowledge, not even he is able to smuggle Al through the medical examination and I'm not as stupid as to believe he is. But I don't have to take away Al's hopes prematurely. Let him be happy that he's smarter than I.
He is.
Damn… time's running up…
A
"What! I can't agree to that!"
Oh Al. I should have prepared you for this… Then again… I don't know. When it comes to emotions, I'm rather inept. And that's saying it very nice.
"Why shouldn't I take the interview!"
I'm staring at the ground; I can't bring myself to look him in the eye. I have the feeling that I've betrayed him again. I don't know how, it's all just irrational and I understand only that rational part of the world. Al's upset. I don't know what to do.
"If you wish to hide your past and move forward, that is the only way."
He's right. He's damn right… but it's not a way to put that for a child. But I don't know any other way either. For a while I'm glad that Mustang is here because otherwise it would have had to be me who tells this to Al… I don't want Al to hate me. I couldn't survive that.
"But I need to reach the same goal as brother!"
Yeah, I know, but that doesn't mean that you have to be involved in the same way. It's all for the better that you won't have to shoot if they order you to. It's… it's like the other side. I don't want to see children killing or being killed. I don't want such things to happen in the world.
"Let it be, Al."
"What?" He's looking at me, startled. He doesn't understand. I beam up at him, pushing all the bitterness out of my mind, even though my jaw is clenched. He sees himself; I'm only a mirror.
"Didn't Auntie Pinako say that National Alchemists get called to duty when a war breaks out?" Think, brother. I can't begin to describe what a war is about, and I don't want you tainted by a mere imagination of that. It had twisted me. It had twisted Mustang. I saw more, but he was there. We're different in our understanding of war, but neither of us wants you there.
For being a total jerk, Mustang does have a beating heart somewhere deep, buried under loads of crap.
"And they have to kill people using Alchemy-" Can you even imagine that, little brother? Don't look at me, look at Mustang's face. He had seen it. For all that is pure, he might have done it. Look into his eyes.
"-which is supposed to be for the good of the public. If you pass, you become a dog of the military."
The smile on my face is stiff, but the shadows of the narrow alley are more than thick enough to conceal that.
"But-" Don't argue Al.
"Only one of us has to endure the shame of being a National Alchemist. So I'll become one for sure and make your wish come true." Our wish.
"Oh… Brother…"
Don't look at me like that, Al. Isn't it enough what I just did? Mustang is a bastard, but he's been helping us all along. He has even come here today to make all of this easier for me (though from his point of view it looks like he's come to persuade us both), and my 'thanks' is making him disgusted with himself. I wonder what must it feel like to have a child call you a shame for the crimes you have commited… I'm not a child, but he doesn't know that.
Oh bugger! Now I'm sympathising with the guy!
A
A golden tripod. Couldn't they think of anything easier? It's a child play – Al could do this when he was six. Well, maybe not draw the pattern you need to stabilise the flow of energies, but definitely to keep it once the circle was drawn…
And they give it to me all? I thought it was supposed to be a test?
Then again… I'm just a kid.
"A golden tripod? Why doesn't it fall in that position?" Because Mustang or some underling keeps it there.
"Sit."
That is the Fuhrer? I don't like him. Not like Mustang – I don't like Mustang, but I would entrust him with Al's life. I wouldn't entrust this man with a broken cenz.
"If you are a true Alchemist, the chair will not reject you."
Bullshit. If you've seen the pattern before, you could sit comfortably on a chair with one leg. True Alchemist. Really.
"Alchemist, have no fear at any time."
Yup, and get killed. I'm having the goose-bumps just from looking at you. But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to sit down.
See? Easy.
"Very good. First, let me hear the reason you took the exam."
They never get less predictable? What did I fabricate for this question?
"That's…"
"That's?"
Poor Mustang is nervous. Let him stew.
"That's because I promised to my only family member that I would become a National Alchemist!"
Eat that, scavengers.
A
It's all in my head. I can't ever get rid of it. It a morbid way I wouldn't do it, though it's strange to watch other people transmute things and present five options how to do it better. The first attempt seemed quite nice on the first sight, but the poor bloke used some totally insensible curves in the pattern and ended up draining himself – how stupid is that? And, if you look properly, the reflection of the sun is off; that means he had made the foundation shoddy. The whole piece of metal and stone is going to fall on his head anytime… counting from the angle of the rays it needs only as much as a small bump. And no one says anything.
Geeze, they even let him sit there. He could do with a cup of sweet water.
I don't like the second man. He's sort of Mustangish – which could explain it – but Mustang is cocky because he has a reason to be. This man doesn't. He's just a show off – but one who read too many books. One glance at the Colonel proves that he thinks this man is dangerous.
Better for me. There are two rivals out of the game.
Trees and water?
He wants to kill us all? Cause he could, quite easily… even with that circle… takes only a little effort to transmute a bomb. Four, three, two… one… kaboom. Bye, bye, murderers of thousands of people… am I really going to serve them?
He created paper and hydrogene from trees and water? Maybe he's not that much of a show off. That was… mediocre.
Oh, shit.
What kind of dumbass makes a baloon that gets ripped by a gust of wind?
I'm looking around and the only person I see who's not panicking is predictably Mustang. He has his gloves on and as far as I can see is prepared to scorch anything in his way… trouble is, you can't burn everything. And you can't always save people with fire. He knows that. He hesitates.
It's too late; the remnants of the paper baloon thing hit the cranky tower and it's falling down in big pieces – right on the head of the man who's too stupid to make a proper circle, too weak to get his arse out of there, and too unfortunate to be remembered by medics. If they even do have a medic somewere in the screaming crowd.
Before I know what I'm doing my feet move; I'm running towards him and, screw secrets, Al will have to understand… Even a single life is worth more than the ease of my mind. I would have drawn a circle if I had a second more, but there is no second and there is no one but me between the falling rocks and the crouching bloke.
I clap, leap forwards and smash my palms in the ground.
I glance at Mustang – he knows.
Fat lot of good did your charm do, Nina. I hope you'll never find out. I hope you'll remember only a lot of flower petals falling from the sky. That's the censored version for children like you.
God, I cannot imagine anyone would be able to hurt a sweet kid like you.
