A/N: The crap is really hitting the fan now! Whoooo! This is hot! Yeaaah! Ok, enough of that... oh, just in case anyone decides to try and complain, yes, I am fully aware that "automail" is not normally spelled with a hyphen like the way I do (auto-mail) - I just think it's cooler that way, that's all; that and it's a little easier to read.

I do not own FMA – but do I think that Arakawa-san may want to get in on this story :)…

…

Chapter 8: "The Last Exam," or "Transmutation Circles"

The next morning Trisha woke up early – a little too early. The practical exam didn't start until noon – the clock on the wall said that it was 6:30 in the morning.

"Oh, well," she yawned, stretching. "I guess I may as well get up now… maybe even walk around the grounds a little." She left a note on her door letting Havoc know where she was in case he came to look in on her. 'After all,' she thought, 'he was instructed to look after me. I'd hate for him to get in trouble because I wasn't where I said I would be.' With that thought, she left the room and walked around the parade grounds in front of the headquarters building. She sat down underneath a tree at the edge of the parade grounds, thinking about the exam that would take place a few hours later.

…

"Well, did she pass her physical?"

"Yes, it appears that way – it also appears that the doctor either had a seizure, or… Hmm… I can't even read this…" Roy muttered, squinting at Trisha's medical file.

"Oh, yeah – haha! Yeah, I know what he… Whoa! He really did have a seizure!" Havoc marveled, peering at the file in the general's hands.

"Havoc, what are you talking about?" Roy demanded, beginning to sound annoyed.

"It's like… some kind of weird language, or…"

"HAVOC!" Roy shouted, "What the hell are you talking about!"

"Take it easy, chief! I mean, it's not like she – "

"Performed a taboo? Edward's her father for crying out loud! Of course that's what I think she would did, Havoc!"

"'fraid not, general. Well, almost not." Havoc told Mustang cheerily.

"and just what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Roy fumed, glaring at Havoc with his one good eye.

"What I mean is that she got auto-mail without necessarily performing human alchemy like Ed and Al did."

"So she does have auto-mail… Hmm… Interesting… No wonder the doctor found her so intriguing… no one on base has seen a soldier, alchemist or otherwise, with auto-mail since Edward…"

"Don't forget Archer, chief," Havoc teased.

"Hmph, yeah, him too, I suppose," Roy said in a serious tone, not noticing Havoc's attempt to purposely rumple his feathers. "But what do you mean by 'not necessarily' performing human alchemy?" Roy asked, quickly getting back to the subject at hand.

"Well, this is only her theory, but she might still be paying for Edward's attempts at human alchemy all those years ago."

"Oh?"

"Yeah; Edward gave up his right arm to get his brother's soul – and apparently it wasn't enough – Trisha was missing her right arm when she was born."

"Really? Well, you don't say," Roy said, his tone darkening and his eye narrowing. "So tell me, Jean – what else did this girl tell you?"

Havoc looked at his superior apprehensively, his face dotted with small beads of sweat, but began to relate his and Trisha's conversation from the previous day anyway. He knew Mustang wouldn't ask if he didn't have a good reason or some kind of concern; and based on the look in the general's eye, Havoc knew that Roy had a very serious concern indeed.

…

After telling Mustang about Trisha's auto-mail, from the train accident al the way to the transmutation circles Havoc had noticed on the back of her auto-mail hand, it was time to leave to observe the practical exam taking place on the parade grounds. Roy and Havoc continued to discuss the mysterious transmutation circles on the back of Trisha's right hand.

"There were quite a few; pretty small, actually, in a kind of arc at the top of the back of her hand, near her knuckles," Havoc told his superior and friend while pointing out the location of the circles on his own hand. "Like I said, some of them looked familiar, but I couldn't tell you what they were for or where they came from."

"And I wouldn't have expected you to. But the fact that you recognized them makes me wonder…"

"General! General Mustang, sir!"

"Hey, wait up! I can't run that fast!"

"General Mustang, Lieutenant Colonel Havoc!"

Havoc and Roy stopped walking and turned around to look behind them, curious and surprised as to who could be shouting and running towards them in such a hurry.

"Sirs!" saluted Second Lieutenant Kain Fuery and First Lieutenant Vato Falman with impeccable military precision.

"Huff… huff… huff…" wheezed Major Heymans Breda as he doubled over, crouching with his hands on his knees and trying to catch his breath.

"Sir!" shouted Fuery, "there's trouble out on the parade grounds, sir!"

"Trouble?" Roy asked, turning to get a better look at Fuery, his brow furrowed. "What kind of trouble?"

"Sir! A riot has ensued among the applicants for the position of State Alchemist, and the military police are having trouble restraining them, sir!" Falman shouted in response, snapping to attention.

"Tsk," Roy said disgustedly. "Why are we even bothering to test these people if they don't even have enough sense to save their fighting for the battlefield!" Roy shouted as he stormed off down the hall in the direction of the parade grounds, fuming.

Havoc shrugged his shoulders and turned to follow Roy, the other soldiers scrambling in his wake, taken aback by the general's somewhat uncharacteristic outburst.

…

When the group arrived at the parade grounds, Roy in the lead, they were all shocked. The situation had escalated since Fuery, Falman and Breda had gone to retrieve Mustang. The parade grounds had erupted into absolute pandemonium; the alchemists were fighting full-force against the military police who had been deployed in order to take back control of the situation. Mustang looked around himself in utter disbelief, his subordinates all huddled behind him. Suddenly a voice rose over the crowd, coming from the crowd of alchemists who were trying to fight past the blockade of military police guarding the door into the main building which Roy and his men had just come out of.

"There he is!" the man shouted, his voice like a bullhorn, carrying across the entire parade grounds for all to hear.

"It's that damned Roy Mustang!" The noise on the parade grounds grew louder as shouts of retaliation turned to ones of indignation and rage.

"Get him!"

"That's the alchemist general! Kill him!"

The crowd of alchemists swelled, overtaking the barricade of military police as they ran towards where Mustang and his men stood only a few yards away.

"Get him! Kill him!" the crowd shouted as they raced towards the general.

Mustang quickly thrust his right hand into his pocket. It emerged wearing a white, cloth glove with a red transmutation circle on it; he raised his hand above his head as the rebels ran began to close in on him when –

"SNAP!"

A wall of flames leaped up, blocking the path of the rampant alchemists who were only a few feet away from the general.

"What the – !" Roy exclaimed, stepping back and lowering his hand.

"What just happened!" Fuery shouted, "the general didn't even have time to transmute!"

"I don't know!" Havoc yelled back over the noise of the flames and the shouts of the blockaded alchemists. He knew as well as the others that fire was Roy Mustang's specialty; to have someone else perform the same feat – snapping their fingers and producing a controlled flame – was certainly shocking.

"SNAP!"

The barricade lengthened and connected, trapping the rebels within a circle of flames.

"Aaaaargh! What happened!"

"Who did this!"

"That damned Mustang! Get him!"

A few of the alchemists, blinded by rage more than anything, tried to get through the barrier of fire with force and alchemy.

"SNAP!"

The circle of flames turned into a circle of water, swelling and crashing in on itself, engulfing the rebels.

"SNAP!"

"CRACK!"

A bolt of lightning, seemingly out of nowhere, came down and hit the small sea of alchemists, sending sparks across the invisibly contained water.

"Aaaaaagh! Nooooo!"

"Owwwww!"

"Aaaaaah!"

The alchemists screamed from the shocks of electricity conducted through the water.

"SNAP!"

The water evaporated, leaving the rebel alchemists out cold on the ground, steam and mist swirling and rising around them. The military police, Roy and the others continued to stare in disbelief.

"You really ought to be more careful, you know."

"Huh?" Roy turned his head about, looking for the source of the voice through the steam.

"If you don't do a better job of screening your applicants, you're going to keep getting members of old terrorist groups rallying everyone against the military like they did today."

The owner of the voice emerged through the thinning mist, taking no care to try to avoid stepping on the prone figures of the rebels on the ground.

"Well, general," Trisha said coolly, "I believe that you owe me one; and since I am the only applicant left, I also believe that I have officially earned the title of State Alchemist."

Roy and the others stood dumbfounded, too shell-shocked to move or speak.

"And," Trisha continued more softly as she came and stood in front of the general, saluting, "I believe that you owe me a moment of your time like we agreed."

There was silence from everyone there, even from the people who had been watching the spectacle from the windows of the headquarters building. Roy continued to stare at her. Suddenly he threw his head back and began to laugh uncontrollably.

…

Whew!… That was a long one! But why is Roy laughing so hard? Guess you're gonna have to wait for the next chapter! Mwahaha! Speaking of which, I gotta get my little butt in gear! I'm all out of typed-up chapters! Oh, the humanity!

Please review! Let me know if anyone is OOC or if there are any passages that don't make sense. Thx! (NO flames, please! Unless they're from Roy! Lol!)