~Author's Note~

Me again. I just wanted to apologize for how short this part is, but it is the ending to the chapter as a whole. I thought it would be longer, otherwise I would have kept it together.

Also, I've been asked for another description of Alee, so here goes:

Alee is fairly tall, 5'6" (that's ~168 cm for my non-American readers ;] I got you!). She is full blooded Amestrian with long, wavy blonde hair to her mid back, and light, sky blue eyes. She's of a medium build and she's got the curves in all the right places (of course), and she's by no means thin or necessarily thick either. She has a slimmer face, high cheekbones, full lips... Is there anything I forgot? She's just a generally good-natured, well-rounded, gorgeous type of gal.

And now, onward!

When they got back to HQ to start the forms, it started pouring rain: the perfectly gloomy end to a perfectly gloomy day.

Yet there was something soothing about doing the paperwork. Filing the report made it easier to take a step back, to remove herself from the incident, to think about Shou Tucker objectively. As horrible and unfair as the whole fiasco was, it was brilliant. Though human transmutation was forbidden, it didn't mean it didn't have huge implications and prospects for moving forward. If Tucker could successfully fuse the tissue of two completely different organisms, didn't that mean that fusing the same tissue would be easier? Human transmutation within a living human, with their own tissues, seemed more possible than ever. Her elusive dream felt close. The whole reason she even became an alchemist was coming together in her mind. If only she could get in Tucker's lab to see his research. If only William had made it to see this final stage.

Alee grit her teeth against the pain that seared in her chest. William would never have made it this long, and it helped no one to think of him. Tucker had been right. It was her own cowardice that killed him. It was true that she let her brother slip between her fingers for fear of making a mistake, but had it really been better to do nothing and let him die? She swallowed the lump in her throat and fought the stinging in the corners of her eyes. But maybe she could do it now, for him…

Slamming the manila folder containing her report closed, she grabbed her coat and made to leave. Roy would have all of Tucker's files, she thought to herself. Outside her door, she checked the hallway and headed to his office. He should have left already…

When she reached his large, wooden, double doors, she glanced around her, and tried the handle. Locked, of course.

She pressed her palms together, and focused the energy into a long, spindly pick that froze into existence in her hand. After checking her surroundings again, she picked the lock and with some work, it swung open and she sidled in, shutting it behind her.

It didn't take long for her to find what she was looking for. Tucker's files were stacked in a neat pile on Roy's desk, waiting for him to check and sign each one before they got locked away forever. This research had just become too deadly and dangerous to be put in the public library, even if the only people with access were State Alchemists. It was now or never for her.

Alee flicked on the desk lamp and began shifting though files. Some were obviously not what she wanted: alchemical profiles and evaluations of his bad assessments. When she did finally find the data on his first chimera, the notes were shady and vague at best. Curse Roy Mustang for not doing his work properly!

Feeling disappointed and frustrated, she was about to quit the room when she spied another, jumbled stack of papers and books. With a glimmer of hope, she poured over them.

This was it. Tucker's notes. She read them greedily.

It could be done! The fusing aspect was what made chimeras especially difficult but she wouldn't have to worry about that, the essence was the same! "Humans take to the transmutation unlike any animal I've ever used," Alee read. "By focusing on the internal energy—the flow from brain to heart to lungs, every part of the body as a movement or a cycle—the body will react and become pliable. It moves for me, fills in the blanks that I cannot see. I act as a guide, not a god."

Alee's heart soared! So the trick was that simple? The body won't do what you want, but it will do what you ask? The key was in the method of transmuting. She laughed aloud and clutched the leather notebook to her chest.

Will, I could do it! It would take refinement. Work. Perfecting. But by her next assessment… Maybe she could even be promoted, or reassigned! Any way out of this lifeless place.

Lightning flashed through the large window pane behind her, jarring her back to reality.

This was all for another time; now she had to leave Roy's office before she got caught and go home to plan.

Taking care that everything was replaced just the way she found it, Alee locked up his office and vacated the building. Once down the marble steps, she pulled the collar of her overcoat up against the rain and hailed a taxi home to her apartment in the far less populated western sector.