A/N: Sorry for not updating… School and homework sucks… On to the chapter!

"Talking"

'Thinking"

Chapter 3: The State Alchemist Exams!

Ed and Al walked Reiki to the site of the first exam. "Now remember, the first exam is a written one. Answer the questions to the best of your ability and try not to mess up on anything." Ed coached.

"Right." Reiki said, smiling.

"The exam is going to start soon… Reiki, you should go now…" Al said, looking at Ed's pocket watch.

"Ok, Al." Reiki started to walk off. She stopped, and then ran back to Ed. "I almost forgot. This is for you." she said, shoving a little package into his hands. "Bye!" she called over her shoulder as she walked away.

Ed unwrapped the package she had given him and marveled at the blood red stone in his hand. (A/N: No, it's not the Philosopher's Stone.) He was shocked when it leapt off of his hand and merged with his auto-mail arm. His arm flashed red and then went back to the silver color of the metal. "What was that?" Ed wondered aloud, inspecting his arm. He found that instead of the coolness of the metal he felt the comfortable heat of flames. Upon further inspection, he found that a tiny alchemic array had appeared where the stone had merged with his arm. He took off his jacket and tried to decipher the array. He figured out that it was a very complex array for fire. He pointed his arm at a bush and it immediately caught fire. 'This will be interesting…' Ed thought with a mischievous smirk.

Meanwhile, Reiki had found a seat and was eyeing her opponents. Brigadier General Basque Gran stepped forward and announced, "We will now begin the first exam! Go!" Everyone started hurriedly reading and writing down answers. Reiki was confident enough but when she got to the long questions that required equally long answers, she was slowed down far more than the dark angel was comfortable with.

---divider thingy---

Ed and Al were looking for Reiki when the flood of people exiting the building lessened and she came out, looking quite flustered. Ed and Al ran up to her.

"How did you do?"

"I did all of it, but the interview and the physical is what I'm worried about…" she said, sounding a little scared. "What if they find out about what I am? They're not going to let a dark angel get into the military!"

"You can't let them see your wings, then. That's all you have to do." Ed replied, calming her down. She nodded, but wasn't convinced.

---divider thingy---

Reiki was standing before the doors to the next exam. She gathered up her courage and pulled open the doors, remembering Ed talk of his journey through those same doors. It was completely dark in the room when she walked in, until a light came from the ceiling and illuminated a golden tripod on top of a complex alchemic array. Reiki wondered why it didn't fall over.

The Fuhrer and other military officials were sitting at the desk in front of the tripod. "Sit." the Fuhrer said. "If you have the gift, it will not refuse you. Alchemists have no fear, at any time." Reiki nodded and sat down in it. It didn't fall over. He smiled. "Very well. Before we begin, let's hear the reason that you took this exam."

Reiki was surprised at the question. "I… I made a promise. To the only family I've got left. I promised I would do this. And I will keep that promise." It was the Fuhrer's turn to be surprised, now.

(Flashback)

Reiki and her brother were ready to perform the human transmutation. Reiki hesitated. "Brother? Are you sure we should go through with this?"

"Of course I am. If I wasn't, I wouldn't bring you into it."

"Remember what you said before? I'm always with you, too. If this goes wrong, I will come back to you. I promise."

"…Let's do this."

"Yeah…"

They slammed their hands down on the circle at the same time. It began to glow with a soft golden light, then turned to an ugly purple. A scream pierced the night air.

(End flashback)

---divider thingy---

Reiki looked out of her bedroom window at the stars. Ed and Al were in the next room over. Her brother's room.

"Is this the right thing to do, Brother? Are you watching me? If you are, you will see me surpass you. I wish you luck in your journey, Sora… My brother…"

---divider thingy---

Ed, Al and Reiki stood before the military building again. Reiki was nervous about the practical skills test. Ed reassured her that nothing would go wrong, since he was one of the examiners. They bid Al goodbye and walked through the gates to the courtyard.

In the courtyard, there were glaciers, a river, some trees and a rock hill. Ed walked up to the examiners and took his place. Everyone started whispering about how Ed was the youngest State Alchemist to ever join the military. Reiki sighed. The Fuhrer announced, "We will now lend you all of the materials in this courtyard. Transmute them as you wish."

Reiki sighed again. "Great guidelines. What do we have to do to pass?" she muttered.

"I'll go first!" some guy said, and rushed forward. He drew his transmutation circle and transmuted a giant tower. His strength was drained, so he couldn't get up after that.

"That was a good transmutation but losing strength that way was a minus." a random examiner said.

"I'm going now." another random guy said and walked up to a glacier that was next to the other guy's tower. He drew his circle and transmuted the glacier into an ice statue of the examiners.

Colonel Mustang inspected the statue. "Nice likeness…" he complemented.

Another guy strode up to the glacier and tried to create an angel statue but it failed and knocked the first statue into the tower, causing ice and bits of the tower to fall. The bits and pieces of ice and tower were going to hit the guy that had transmuted the tower. Ed stepped forward. "That's not good!" Reiki ran out and pushed the guy out of the way of the falling debris and got hit with them herself. Ed's eyes widened as smoke billowed from the crash site. He tried to go to her, but the Colonel stopped him. "You must let her do things on her own."

"Kage Kuchiku!" (1) A black light was shining from inside the smoke and it was dissipated. When the smoke was gone, everyone was shocked that the tower and ice sculpture was gone and Reiki was seemingly unharmed. She stumbled over to the other alchemists and waited for them to finish.

When they all were done, the examiners announced the name of the alchemist that would join the military.

"This year's new State Alchemist, Reiki Karasu!"

Reiki looked up, shocked. Ed motioned for her to take the watch that the Fuhrer presented to her. She took it and thanked him. She ran through the halls of the base and ran outside, Ed right behind her. She ran up to Al and cried, "I did it!" Al looked to Ed and asked, "How?"

"Well it seems she used her shadow alchemy to destroy an ice sculpture and a tower. She called it 'Kage Kuchiku' or something."

"Yep!" Reiki replied, overhearing their conversation. "It's part of the three steps of alchemy! Analyzation (sp?), decomposition, and reconstruction! I use my shadows and stop at the second stage! You should try it! It's easy!"

Ed wondered about how he would use his newfound knowledge. He smirked as he thought of a way to annoy a certain bastard colonel.

End of chapter

(1) Shadow Destruction

A/N: So how do you like it? Reiki will get her second name next chapter!

R&R please!