Live for yourself this time around, Little Alchemist
Though little thing
Chapter 005
Author: Black Dragon on the Rocks/Animealam/Alandrem
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Nope, the characters here don't belong to me. I'm not making any money out of this, and it's for my own enjoyment and that of those who read it.
Summary: Truth did not accept Ed's alchemy as payment for his brother, instead It asked for Ed's body and two favors. Ed would be able to do what no male alchemist could, bring forth life. The favors? Save a world were his counterpart died during the Human Transmutation, and live for herself this time around. Ed agreed, he'd do anything for Alphonse, even becoming a girl. Not Mpreg, no slash.
Characters: Edward Elric, Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, Truth, Jean Havoc, Heyman Breda, Kain Fuery, Vato Falman, Granny Pinako, Winry, King Bradley, Various Homunculi, Alphonse Elric, Van Hohenheim, OCs, Mentions of the Avengers, Maybe some Avengers, Tony Stark almost a given.
Warnings: Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Dimension Travel, Alternate UniverseDe-Aging, Fem!Ed, Violence, Angst, Drama, Gore, Magic, Mentions of Rape, Mentions of Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Alternate Universe, OOCness, Canon typical violence, Mentions of sexual harassment, Roy/Ed very far in the future, World Building, Other Fandoms Not Mentioned in Tags, Explicit Language, Ed swears... a lot, Modern Era, Modern Amestris, Will add tags as I go,
Pairing: Future Fem!Ed/Roy... maybe.
Timeline: Mixed timelines. Starts with Brotherhood - Post Promised Day, then it's mostly Anime 2003 until after Youswell, Some Brotherhood, Starts - Post Ed's 1st human transmutation, Avengers Movie.
Keys:
"Dialog" Normal dialog.
'Thoughts' Thoughts
"Dialog" Conversations on the phone, radio, video.
Author Notes: Thanks for the comments as well as the kudos, guys. It makes the muses happy.
More cannon deviations from here, just remember a good part of this story will take place before the start of Brotherhood, years we know practically nothing about, and which give us writers some leeway.
After listening to my playlist, I decided Fem Ed's theme to be This is the Future by Epic North. I still haven't decided Hawkeye's yet.
Words with Notes: 5,194 (W/O Notes: 4,832) (Notes: 362)
Next morning she was at Headquarters on time. It was a rare occurrence for her, as Ed made it her mission to never be when responding to the bastard's summons; back then it was a matter of pride. She was looking terribly rumpled and grumpy. Ed also had a black eye, a bruised cheek opposite to the eye, several scrapes, several bruises under her clothes, scrapped knuckles on her left hand, and a split lip. The others though, had looked infinitely worse after she was done with them, which Ed was quite proud of.
She was a much better and more experienced fighter than she had been when she really was twelve, Ed was also much stronger, and her Danger Sense did help... when she actually paid attention to it, which she had not done, and it had inevitably led to having to fight those assholes. Ed had actually broken a couple noses, an arm, and left a guy with a few less teeth. That was not counting the black eyes and several bruises caused by being hit with her automail limbs, so she had given as good, if not better, than she got.
Ed had tried to get a hotel room for the night after she left the train station, but she found out to her surprise no one would rent one to an unaccompanied minor; and she realized that might become a problem later on, specially when she went out on missions out of the city. A couple of those hotels had actually called the police and the Amestrian Child Protection Agency, thinking she was a runaway, which she was not.
Her situation was more dire than a runaway's, because she truly had no one, no family, and no guardians; and that was the recipe for a long stay in one of Central's orphanages. Ed saw she had no choice except to escape from them, and that on itself was a hassle—thankfully while more modern, downtown Central was as she remembered—otherwise she might have ended in a state orphanage, or group home for troubled kids, which as a 'thing' now, but did not exist back in her original Reality.
Back in her original Dimension things like what happened to her the previous night were rare. There was no ACPA—the Amestrian Child Protection Agency—to begin with, and having a seven feet tall suit of armor around helped more than she had thought. Too late did Ed realize—and that was the first time the hotel clerk called the police—the fact she had no trouble booking a room in hotels or inns might have been because people thought Al was an adult, despite the childish voice. They all initially thought Alphonse was the older brother, after all.
Since she was clearly not getting a roof over her head for the night, Ed tried sleeping on a bench in one of the parks close to Headquarters, as it would not be the first time she slept out in the open. She had even done it in Central a few times. Ed could still remember the time they had decided to fumigate the barracks, and that kept everyone out for about a week.
Unfortunately for her, Ed did not get the few hours of sleep she had been hoping for. Ed got attacked by a pervert who thought she was a little boy, a runaway, and easy prey. She was already in a foul mood, so Ed taught the pervert the error of his ways. The asshole was not the only pervert she had dealt with in her life, and she loathed their type, so after dealing with the stupid perverted asshole, she left him trussed up with a little note for the police to deal with in the morning.
Having to deal with a pervert had not been enough, oh no, not for her—and Ed blamed Truth for that—she then got mugged, or at least they tried to, by a gang of four teenagers on the way back to Central train Station, where she had planned to sleep. Ed won, she was the better fighter, but two of the assholes got lucky with a few hits since she had been too tired, as well as sleepy—her body was that of a kid, and still needed to sleep a lot—to actually pay much attention to her Warning Sense. It HAD tingled at the back of her mind in that odd way she had come to identify as danger coming.
In the end, Ed managed about three hours of sleep at the train station, before security took a good look at her disheveled condition and decided she had been loitering at the place long enough, and threw her out threatening to call ACPA to come pick her up. It was a busy station, and there were people at all hours of the day and night, so they should not have thrown her out. She had gone back in, and tried, unsuccessfully, to make herself more presentable at the station's rest rooms, but she gave up on it as a futile effort, so she headed to Central Command Headquarters, and her appointment with Mustang.
From behind his desk, Roy took in the disheveled and grumpy looking little girl. A year ago, he had offered a purpose to a child who had just lost two of her limbs after surviving a double Human Transmutation; a feat thought to be impossible. While then it had been a means for him to advance in rank—he knew alchemical talent when he saw it, and Elric was a prodigy—as well as a way to get him closer to becoming Führer, he was not heartless. Specially not with the people under his command, and there was no doubt in his mind Edward Elric would be, even if he had not expected her to come knocking on his door only a year after automail surgery.
Seeing the girl's condition, there was also the dawning realization there was no way he could treat her like he did his other subordinates, who were all adults. Before him was a child, not an adult, no matter how talented, intelligent, determined, or powerful she was. He could not expect her to act like an adult either, and neither should Roy keep his distance as he did with the others, because as a minor, he would have more responsibility towards her.
It was a shock to come to the realization that he did not take into consideration someone Edward's age was still growing, and was not yet mature; not that all adults he knew could be considered mature. His best friend, Maes Hughes, was a good example. She was twelve years old, and no matter how independent she probably was, Roy was certain any child Edward's age still needed adult guidance and supervision.
Edward needed an adult to take care of her, and as her Commanding Officer, he was probably going to be the one who had to provide all that for the child. Unfortunately, Roy was not sure if he would be able to. He was only twenty-six after all, what did he know about taking care of children, besides the fact that after the war he never thought he would have any. This was not counting how damaged he ended after what he was forced to do in Ishval.
As he looked at her, it was obvious Elric had been in a fight, and he was curious to know how the other party fared. Roy now had the full reports of the attempted train kidnapping, and the girl—although everyone believed her a boy, and his team would be in for a big surprise when they found out how wrong they were—had engaged a man at least four times her size in hand to hand... and won. Not only that, but she had actually crushed a military grade automail limb with her own version of it.
Her own automail was a piece of art from what the reports said, and clearly much stronger than Bald's military grade one; that was something a few of his superiors would be interested in, he was sure. The Rockbells might be getting a few military contracts if they were not too against working for them. According to Maes and the General—who where there, and witnessed the fight—the girl was clearly much stronger than her tiny stature, and slender build suggested.
Then there were those stunning, and paralyzing darts she had used on the terrorists. Roy was sure they were very useful tools, Falman had come with high praise of them. After they heard the Warrant Officer's recount of the previous afternoon, his men—and woman—wanted to know where she got them, as well as if they could get their hands on some of them. Hawkeye was particularly interested, being the team's sharpshooter.
The Lieutenant's job made her a killer, something he knew she did not like, but would still do as it was in her job description. So he knew Hawkeye would love an alternative to killing that would still allow her to efficiently do her job. It would ease her conscience a bit, and he would love to be able to provide that small peace of mind for her. But while they were interested in the darts and the guns needed, Roy was not sure Edward would be willing to share them, at least not yet, because he could bet one of his ignition gloves Elric made them.
"I would have expected you to make yourself... presentable, Miss Elric. This is, after all, a job interview of sorts." That got him a blush from her, but also an impressive death glare.
Those unique golden eyes of hers almost glowed with indignation. Besides him Hawkeye gasped, and his men gaped. Falman in particular, but then, he was the one who actually saw her in action. They had clearly been under the impression she was all boy, and he smirked at his team for getting one over them.
"Bastard," Ed snapped and glared at Mustang, "try to be presentable when no one'll rent you a room because you're not eighteen. I had to escape the police and ACPA a couple of times at least," she huffed indignant. "When I finally found a nice bench to get some shut eye, a fucking pedo thought I'd make a nice trophy.
"Left that piece of crap trussed up for the police," she informed him sounding satisfied, which she was. Dealing with the perv had been a good stress reliever, and she got that bastard out of the streets as a bonus. "Then I thought the train station would be better—and it was, got about three hours of sleep there—but on the way there those four sons of bitches thought I had money and was an easy prey. Right, like I was going to give it to them without a fight, stupid assholes! Cut a couple of them, beat them up, and broke a couple of noses." She said sounding quite proud of herself.
Edward then decided to show them what she meant about cutting them when they looked at her rather disbelieving. She clapped, changed her automail into her short blade, then back to normal, and they all looked impressed. Even Mustang, although that might be because she had not used a circle to transmute her short blade. There were also shocked looks, as they realized her right arm was automail. She glared at them, and raised her chin proudly, refusing to accept any pity, from them or anyone else.
"But the sons of bitches did manage a few lucky hits," Ed admitted. They had caught her by surprise, which was why they landed a few kicks and punches. The asshole who gave her the black eye was now missing a few teeth, and had a broken arm, as Ed got even. "Now, as I said, try to look presentable after a crappy night like that!" She huffed again, this time in annoyance, crossed her arms, and winced. One of the bastards probably cracked a rib. "Asshole!" She added to show she was not happy with him reprimanding her.
Roy stared at the girl before him and felt like utter shit. He had treated her like he would any other candidate for the exam, or future recruit, but those he had dealt with before had all been adults—the youngest was probably nineteen, if not twenty—able to easily locate room and board for themselves. But Edward was not an adult—never mind the fact she was rather tiny for a girl her age—and Amestrian laws had changed through the years to protect children, even if they were not perfect.
He should have taken into consideration no hotel would rent a lone child a room, yet Roy did not. His lack of foresight left young Edward to fend for herself; which from what she just recounted, she did admirably, but the girl should not have had to. It fell on to him to provide her with at least a safe place to sleep, since he had been the reason why she decided to travel to Central to take the State Alchemist exam. If he had never offered her the opportunity, Roy was sure the girl would not have hurried with her recovery, and be sitting before him a little the worse from wear.
Roy suspected Elric must have been scared—from what little he knew of girls her age that was the logical conclusion—and was probably still distraught, but the fire in that glare let him know she was not going to show it. She was a surprisingly strong girl. Besides, Edward was still a child, one who sought to enter a world of adults, so she was clearly not showing him what in her eyes was a weakness even if it was not. Well, he better start taking charge of the kid like he should have done yesterday, because even if she was not yet a member of his team, she was still his responsibility because he had been the one to scout her.
"Havoc, bring me the First Aid kit. Falman, go find a couple of ice packs. Breda, bring Miss Elric a decent breakfast..." Roy began instructing his men as he took stock of what was necessary to tend to the child.
"No milk!" Ed hurried to say, slightly bemused by the Colonel Bastard's behavior. "I don't like that awful cow secretion," and her words earned her a few amused snorts.
The Colonel had looked... guilty, and... angry with himself, which was a surprise because the bastard she had known would not have let his mask fall when he had met her only once before. Then Ed could not help wondering why he had looked the way he did. The bastard... Mustang... she knew had never been that attentive towards him or Al before. Sure, he did show up whenever Ed ended in the hospital, if they were in East City, and had even stayed a couple of nights so Al could get a mental break... or leave for a while to get more books to keep himself busy, but he never openly showed concern.
Why the change?
Because it was a very noticeable deviation from the way the bastard had behaved in her original Dimension. Was it because of her gender? But he really did not treat Hawkeye—or any other female soldier from what she could remembered—any different, so Ed did not think that was it. Mustang treated all female soldiers like equals, the secretaries and civilians were another matter whatsoever, as he shamelessly flirted with them. Besides, the Lieutenant would have probably shot his balls off if he had treated her like a fragile flower or something.
"No coffee, Lieutenant Breda," Riza said at the same time as the girl refused any milk. She frowned but did not contradict her, just made sure Breda knew not to give caffeine to the girl. Riza did know that was not good for children.
Riza had driven Roy to Resembool last year, when he found Edward Elric, but she did not go inside the house with him, and he never mentioned the alchemist he met there was a small pre-pubescent girl who was missing an arm. Riza thought the kid was a boy until her CO called her Miss Elric because of her name, and frankly the clothes the child wore. But now she was able to pay closer attention to the child's features, she could see the girl was actually very pretty... if one ignored the black eye, the bruised cheek, the scrapes, and split lip. Riza could also tell Edward Elric was one tough kid, most twelve year old girls would have been crying after the night she had.
"Lieutenant," Roy said as he turned to his most trusted subordinate, and close friend, "escort Miss Elric to the officer's showers, and stand guard to protect her, as well as her privacy." He did not think the girl wanted anyone—besides him, since he had seen her without them—to know about the full extent of her automail just yet, or for any male officer to walk in on her when she showered.
"Yes, Sir," Riza responded with a curt nod, then turned to the little blonde. "This way, Miss Elric," she indicated as she walked towards the outer office. The girl was staring at the Colonel with shock, and disbelief in her eyes... like she had not expected to be cared for.
"Go on, Miss Elric," Roy signalled for the girl to follow Hawkeye, which she did after shaking herself out of her shock.
He noticed she had a slight limp as well. The right ankle, which if he remembered right, was her remaining limb, and the wince that followed her shaking. It was not a grimace of pain, and he hoped it denoted her ribs might only be bruised, and not fractured. He knew Riza would see to them, which was the proper thing to do, and another reason why he sent her to escort Elric. The girl might feel more comfortable to admit those injuries which were not visible to another female.
'Tough little thing,' Roy thought with a mental shake of his head.
Roy was perhaps not as surprised as he should be to see the girl did not voice, and tried hard to hide, the pain she was clearly in. She did not want to appear weak before adults, he could also see Edward was surprisingly strong for a twelve year old, as most—boys and girls—would have been crying in pain. Yet she was not, Edward barely showed it in her body language, because her face hid most of it. It was also obvious she did not trust them yet, but she would, Roy would do what he could to earn that trust.
'The fuck was that?' Ed thought bemused as she followed Hawkeye to the officer showers.
If she was not wrong, they were on the second floor, close to the large officer's break room. Ed could not help wondering just what the fuck was going on, because nothing like what had just transpired in that office had ever happened to her before. Mustang had never really been... nice to her, or openly showed concern—he had done it in private once or twice if Ed remembered well—even when the only witnesses were the rest of the team.
Frankly, whenever Ed was at the office to report, or whatever, the bastard usually just made fun of her height, her handwriting, or berated her for destroying one building or another, in other words, behaved like a jerk. On the few times she had been injured he ordered her to go to the infirmary or the hospital, and threatened her with a court martial if she refused... or sicked Alphonse on her. Her little brother could nag with the best of them... until Ed ended giving up and going to the fucking hospital just to get some peace.
'That, is Mustang taking care of his people—' the little voice began.
'No one asked you,' she snapped at the annoyance. Why? Oh, why did Truth saw fit to provide her with an inner voice? One that was too perky and annoying for her tastes to booth? Besides, why did it just appeared now, and not while she had still been in Resembool?
'—and realizing much earlier he isn't dealing with an adult; and should not treat you as one,' the voice went on ignoring the interruption.
'I'm not a kid,' Ed thought as she followed Hawkeye, into the elevator. Her right ankle hurt a lot, probably sprained, although she could not remember when that happened. Her best bet would be that it happened during the fight with the thugs before she went to the train station. 'I'm seventeen!' She protested. It had been weird to celebrate her twelfth birthday, while mentally counting it as her seventeenth.
Ed was surprised when instead of going down to the second floor, they went up to the fifteenth. This version of Central Command was still built atop a hill which overlooked the rest of the city, and had the same kind of architecture than the one in her Amestris, but it had more floors than the other one, as well as a hell of a lot more people working there. This building had twenty-five floors—well, twenty-four, if one discounted there was no thirteenth floor—plus several basement levels.
'Even mentally you'd be considered one,' the voice pointed out, and got a growl in response to that, even if it was true. A seventeen year old teenager was still considered a minor in Amestris, even if they could enlist at sixteen, they still required the parents' consent. 'And... well... Truth did do something to us so we could... act our age despite being mentally older,' the voice said rather tremulously, like it was afraid of Ed's response, and it was right.
'THE FUCKING CREEPY BASTARD DID WHAT?' Oh, she was not pleased, not pleased at all hearing about it. It did explain a few things she had noticed back in Resembool. Things she had done with Winry she would never have back in her original Reality.
'They did a few... modifications,' It settled on saying, 'so it wouldn't be as hard to act our age, and to make it more... instinctive to behave like a girl. But really, this isn't bad.' Edward mentally growled, expressing her displeasure. She was definitely leaving the creep with a few less teeth the next time she met him, and Ed knew she would. 'Really, it isn't.
'This will help us to fit better, and accept we aren't a guy anymore... even if it took you a fucking year to finally think of yourself as a girl,' Ed just growled again, 'talk about being slow on the uptake, Girl,' this got another, more menacing, growl. 'Anyway going back to what we were talking, you probably won't travel as much as you did before. I'm certain you'll be kept close. Besides, you aren't actively chasing after the Philosopher's Stone this time around, there's no reason to.'
Ed sighed mentally, and took a couple of discreet deep breaths to calm herself. There was no point in being angry—although that did not mean she would not get even the first chance she got—it was done, and Ed doubted there was a way to change things back to how they were before she ended in this Dimension. Besides, she had agreed to come, and become a girl, so Alphonse could get both his body, and his soul, and be returned to their Amestris.
'I'm not sure about that. I still have to do something about them to get the homunculi and Father's attention,' Ed corrected, as Truth wanted those souls released, and doing that would undermine Father's efforts to become God-like.
'I forgot about that, but I think using alchemy without using a physical array will be enough to get their attention. I think you'll still go on the same military related missions, although the Colonel might not send you alone this time around. '
'I don't know...' Ed started to think uncertain.
"We're here, Miss Elric. You'll find toiletries in that cabinet, and towels in that other." Riza pointed at each in turn. "That over there is the laundry shutter, it's for used towels."
"Thanks, Ma'am," she chose to be respectful, it had always paid to be with her, "and please call me Ed." She gave a quick look at the place, and was surprised it was larger and more luxurious than she expected.
There was an area for female officers, and one for males, but there was no door to make them more private. The area for female officers had a locker room, with a couple of long padded benches in the middle. There were several sinks on the far side with a large well lighted mirror on the wall. On the right side of the sinks was the entrance to the shower stalls, all were ample, and the doors were frosted glass, while the separations were tiled walls.
'Whoa! This is so much nicer than the ones they had in our Amestris!' The annoying voice exclaimed happily.
'Yeah,' Ed had to admit the voice was right. 'Although I'm not so sure about the frosted glass doors.' She was sure they did not really hide much.
'Don't be a prude,' the annoyance chided her.
'I... I was... I haven't... I...' Ed mentally spluttered, but had no chance to retort as the Lieutenant was speaking.
"In private you may call me Riza, Ed," she granted the use of her first name, and chose to use the shorter version of her name since the other was too masculine, "in public I'm Lieutenant Hawkeye."
"You go by your call sign? Does this mean you're some sort of sniper?" Ed asked pretending she knew nothing about the older woman.
Riza smiled, "Yes I am, but Hawkeye is actually my last name, not my call sign. That one's the Hawk's Eye. I'm a sniper when needed, but mostly I'm in charge of the Colonel's security, and making sure the office is working efficiently," Riza chose to explain to the girl.
Although to be truthful, it was more like baby-sitting the lot of them. She knew the Colonel was very interested in Ed joining their team, and he was certain passing the State Alchemist exam would be a walk in the park for the kid. He had mentioned that yesterday after leaving the station.
"Wow! So you're like his bodyguard?" Ed already knew that—as well as the fact that apparently the bastard did need one—but since she was not supposed to know, she had had to ask anyway. Hawkeye nodded in response. "Sounds like an interesting job, Flame Alchemy doesn't seem like it'll work when raining..." Ed mused aloud on purpose and got a chuckle turned cough in response.
"That is... correct, and... insightful, Ed," Riza was both amused, and pleasantly surprised by the girl's deduction.
"When I pass," because there was just no way she would not when Ed had already been through the exam before, "I can be backup bodyguard if you want. My alchemy works at all times," she offered testing the waters. Hawkeye looked surprised by her offer. "The Colonel's been training with fire arms, hand to hand, and other types of alchemy, hasn't he?" she whispered as she began undoing her braid before the mirror.
"He has," Riza admitted slowly, her eyes narrowing a bit. The kid was not supposed to know that, specially about the alchemy. While other soldiers at East Command had seen the Colonel perfecting his combat training—otherwise known as wiping the floor with Roy Mustang, at least initially, since he eventually improved—the alchemy he had kept a closely guarded secret.
"I was the one to pass the warning, Riza," Ed told her, and reflected on the mirror, she could see the surprise in the other woman's face. "When I... did what I did, I learned some things, not as much as I would have liked to, unfortunately, but it was enough to... suggest he kept himself in good fighting shape. The... wall's here have ears, though," she whispered, as Ed had already risked too much speaking there. "Well, I won't take long," she said louder, going into one of the furthest shower stalls.
Riza nodded, understanding that whatever the girl knew came from that Human Transmutation she performed—the Colonel had told her as much that night—and Central Command was definitely not the place to talk. "You don't have to hurry, Ed, take as long as you need."
"Thanks, Riza," she said already starting to undress.