Chapter 20: Interlude

A/N: Hello, all! I'm very, very sorry about how backwards everything has been and in how late I've been with updating! School's started back up and I feel about ready to shoot myself… Was summer just a dream? Yup… It was… Sob! Anyway, I'm already working on chapter 21, but I felt that this chapter would be a good time to go back and review, and then add on some new stuff! So, before you decided to totally blow this chapter off, don't! There are new developments to the story, it's just not too terribly long… And so now, a chance for everyone here to catch up and take a breath before beginning anew!

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In The New Fullmetal Alchemist (A/N: I named myself after my character, not the other way around! Just so you guys know…), it has been seven years since the end of the FMA movie, Conqueror of Shamballa, and Ed and Al are still missing. Everyone has been able to more or less get on with their lives, except for some major set-backs. Roy was re-instated into the ranks of the State Alchemists as a general following the attack of the Thule Society in the movie, and, even though he was able to see Edward again, he still hasn't been able fully erase our favorite pint-sized alchemist from his mind. Two years ago from our story's beginning (5 years after the movie's end), he and Riza settled down and were getting ready to have their first child together; unfortunately, rebel factions had grouped together, targeting the children of military and government higher-ups – Roy's unborn son was one of the victims, causing Riza severe injury as well. At the start of the story it is early spring and Roy and Riza, who is four months pregnant, are ready to try and put their lives back together again. However, a knock at Roy's office door sends things scattering again. He is confronted with a girl who claims to be the daughter of the hero Edward Elric – she's named Trisha, after his mother. She's fourteen years old, and was born to Winry Rockbell, who used an ancient, rudimentary alchemy she found in order to conceive her and Ed's daughter after Edward left for the last time. Because of her unusual bringing about and her familial history of alchemy, Trisha grew exponentially – in a single year she would age by three or four years, and so on – the more years that pass, however, the slower the rate of aging – eventually she will reach the point that she ages and grows at a normal rate; she is also apparently still paying for Ed's transactions with the gate – when she was born she was missing her right arm. Years later she lost her left leg as she was trying to save a child in Resembool. She is now equipped with some of the same auto-mail that her father once used. She has light brown hair (like Ed's mother) and bright blue eyes (like Winry), and wears all black, save for a blue trench coat (just like Ed!). Winry died a year before the story began – there was supposedly a flash of green light, and people everywhere – another flash of light, and Trisha's mother was dead. After her mother's death, Trisha decided to roam the country in search of more information about the father she knows so little about – on the way she meets people who her father and uncle encountered on their own journeys, and from some of them she learns different transmutation circles, most of which were also copied down in the old notebook of her father's that she carries with her. Six of those circles have been etched onto the back of her auto-mail hand – she had a dream one night where all six appeared, accompanied by a shadowy figure – even more disturbing was a seventh, mostly unseen circle. When she awoke, the six circles were engraved onto her auto-mail hand in an arc by the knuckles. She now uses these circles to her advantage, even though she doesn't fully know or understand how they work. She eventually goes to Mustang in Central in order to become a State Alchemist. After an impressive display, Mustang agrees, and he gives her the title of "The New Fullmetal Alchemist." Late in the same evening of her passing her alchemy exam, Roy takes her to his home so Riza can meet her. On their way he presents her with Ed's old pocket watch, retrieved from the ruins of Lior. Upon receiving the watch, a mysterious transmutation circle activates in the stone wall they're walking beside, and Trisha disappears – beyond the Gate. In Roy's world, only a day or so has passed, but Trisha's timeline has been moving much faster. She's been pitched in the present time, the transmutation circles on her auto-mail gone, and was attacked by several men upon her arrival, all wielding the same powers that killed her mother a year ago. Trisha defeats them and is able to cover her tracks to the best of her abilities; but using alchemy beyond the gate proves extremely difficult for her – the only reason she is able to use it (wheras Ed wasn't when he went beyond the Gate) is that alchemy is an integral part of her body's make-up – when she claps her hands to transmute, she combines the energy from around her with energy from within herself. But since she is no longer in a world that can easily support alchemy, her powers diminish much faster – and, when that happens, the alchemic power in her body diminishes as well, leaving her body and causing alarming transformations. Her hair and eye color turn white, and her body becomes weak – if she uses too much energy, her heart could stop and she would die. Fortunately she can recover her physical appearances after only a few hours' rest. Harry Potter, Ron Weasly and Hermione Granger stumble upon Trisha shortly after her brush with the strange men – Lord Voldermort's Death Eaters. She mistakes them for more people after her life, and tries to beat Harry to the chase. He's startled not only by the blade against his throat, but the silver hair and silver eyes of his young attacker. After brief histories are exchanged, the trio take Trisha back to Hogwarts, where she joins up with them to find the horcruxes that contain Voldermort's soul. Ron's infatuated with her, and Hermione hates her for it. Harry, on the other hand, seems to be able to relate to her more, most likely because of their similar pasts. After They've just had a conversation about Trisha and her plans for getting home – Trisha says she isn't scared to die, and that perhaps dieing is the only way she can get home. But, thanks to recent findings, such as a news article about the uranium bomb her father had been tracking down, that might not have to be the case. Especially after gently turning down Ron's affections – one of her transmutation circles reappeared, and Trisha finally figured out what she hopes to be a method for getting back to her own home and her own time – defeating the deadly sins (although not quite the same, literal way that Ed did) through the seven virtues. After this revelation, Harry is urgently summoned by Ron; likewise, Havoc has just come and informed a weary Roy that there is something he needs to see immediately…

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"Hedwig!" Harry cried out as he entered the dusty, dimly lit room of the Leaky Cauldron. He rushed over to the windowsill where Hermione sat with the owl on her knee, rubbing its feathers gently with a turpentine-soaked rag. Harry watched in confusion as with each stroke of the rag Hedwig went from a dirty brown to her usual, stunning white. "What happened to her?" Harry asked.

Hermione gave a quick glance towards the door, spotting Trisha with a small frown. "You have a letter from Professor Lupin," she said calmly as she handed Harry the roll of parchment. "Apparently he thought it wiser to disguise Hedwig than to send an owl less capable of finding us without getting intercepted."

"Oh…" Harry mumbled as he strode forward to take the message from Hermione. "Good girl, Hedwig" he praised as he stroked the snowy owl's now-clean head. Hedwig hooted in contentment, bringing a smile to Harry's face as he unrolled the ltter. His eyes quickly scanned the page, Ron standing at his shoulder and reading along as well.

Trisha quietly crossed the room and knelt by Hermione's feet, looking quizzically at the bird before her. Hedwig returned Trisha's gaze, and the two stared intently at each other as a perplexed Hermione constantly looked back and forth between the two.

Harry's face lit up in a smile as he handed the letter to Ron, who continued to read; Hedwig hooted; Trisha smiled; and Hermione, having had enough of all this, suddenly shouted, "What in the world is going on here?"

Hedwig and Trisha both jolted in surprise, but Harry jumped right in. "Take it easy, Hermione, it's ok. Remus just wanted to meet with us in the Forbidden Forest – he says it's time to make new plans."

"But why?" Hermione asked, clearly concerned – had something gone wrong? Were they not accomplishing the goals that they need to?

Ron looked up from the letter, face bright. "It's because they found the seventh horcrux!"

…

Roy stared up at the protective stone wall before him, wide-eyed in surprise. A cool, brisk breeze stirred up leaves along the side-walk, rusting the yellow caution tape that boxed Roy and Havoc in. The general brushed back his hair away from his remaining good eye, straining to get the best possible vision that he could in order to better see the softly glowing, freshly etched transmutation circle that had suddenly materialized in the same part of the wall that Trisha had disappeared through just hours before.

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So, what did everyone think? Sorry that was such a long synopsis, guys – but, considering that we're on chapter 20 and I'm on about page 56 here on my word document, I felt that it needed to be done. Please everyone give me some feedback, although I know that there's not much to really go on right now… Sorry! I know I've been bad… At least there's one bright side to being back in school – American government! Now I can finally get some writing done! Haha! See you guys soon in chapter 21! Thank you to everyone for your wonderful patience – you're the best readers in the world! (bows)