Chapter 1: Tangled up in me
You wanna know more more more about me
Gotta know reverse psychology
I'm the reason why you can't get to sleep
I'm the girl you never get just quite what you see
-Skye Sweetnam, "Tangled up in me"
I was hurtling toward the ground. I saw a tiny blonde blur in my line of sight. It must've been my screaming that alerted him because he turned just as we collided. Lena landed beside us and looked over.
"Wow, Cor, you move fast," she said.
I looked down and saw my knees on each side of his waist. I felt my face heat up. I looked up and saw his face had done the same. With a strangled cry, he shoved me off of him.
"Watch where you're falling!" he said.
"It's not like I can control the projection!" I shot back.
"Well try! Who are you two, anyway?" he said. He got up and started dusting himself off.
"I'm Cora Ayton. And this is my friend, Lena Wilson. Who are you? And for that matter, where are we? Because I'm fairly certain this isn't Germany," I said.
He was silent for a moment and had a guarded look on his face. Finally, he said, "No. This isn't Germany. It isn't even your dimension."
"Ha! I knew we weren't the only one!" Lena cried, jumping up and down and clapping.
"Come on. There's someone I need to take you to," he said. He turned and started walking away.
"Hey, you never told us your name or where we are!" Lena said.
He stopped and looked at us. "My name is Edward Elric. Welcome to Amestris." He was giving us a stony look. It was the first time I'd gotten a good look at him.
He looked about twenty. He was handsome with long blonde hair tied back. He was tall. Well, in comparison to my five feet. It was his eyes, though, that had me mesmerized. They were yellow, like a cat's. And wasn't just the color. They were hard and cynical, like he'd seen the worst that the world had to offer; and maybe he had.
He turned and continued walking. Lena and I ran after him. "Okay. So we're in Amestris; now what?" I asked.
"Now, I take you to a man named Colonel Mustang and he figures out what to do with you," Edward said.
"Colonel Mustang in the library with a wrench!" Lena shouted and started laughing.
"Ignore her. 'What to do with us'? What are we? Cattle?" I said.
"As far as the state's concerned, yes. Under Mustang, you might be useful cattle."
We got to a street and Edward led us to a car. He ushered us inside and got in after us. In the front seat, a man at the wheel turned.
"Hey, Ed, who are they?" he asked. He had short orange hair and smelled like an ash tray.
"Second lieutenant, this is Cora Ayton and Lena Wilson. Mustang will probably explain everything to you later. Cora, Lena, this is Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc. He works under Mustang," Edward said.
Lena turned in her seat to Havoc. She looked uncharacteristically serious. "What sort of man is the Colonel, Second lieutenant?"
Havoc gave an almost ironic smirk. "He's a lazy womanizer. He's always sleeping on the job and puts his paper work off until the last minute."
This was the man Edward was foisting us off onto? I looked at Edward but he was stretched out on the seat with his hands behind his head, eyes closed and a smile on his face. Something is rotten in the state of Amestris.
"So you're leaving us with someone who shirks his duties?" I asked.
Edward cracked open an eye. "Yes." He closed his eyes again.
I turned to Havoc. "Since Edward plans to leave us, what do you suppose he'll do with, Second lieutenant? The Colonel, that is," I said.
"Hmmm… that's hard to say. You'll probably end up in either the library or working as secretaries. I doubt you'll want to be involved in combat. You two aren't alchemists, are you?"
"What are alchemists?" Lena asked.
Edward flew off the seat when Havoc slammed on the breaks. Havoc turned in his seat.
"Are you serious?" he asked.
"What? We're not from around here," Lena said defensively.
Havoc turned back around. "That's for sure." Havoc turned back around and continued driving.
Edward pulled himself back into the seat. "To answer Lena's question, an alchemist is someone who can break down an object's basic structure and reform it as something else. That is alchemy. Alchemy can't be performed in your world, but the life energy from it is what allows this world to perform it. And there has to be an equal exchange. You can't just take something and change it into whatever you want."
"Is it an ability you're born with or are you taught?" I asked. By this point, Lena wasn't paying attention. She was too busy flirting with Havoc.
"It's a combination of both. Some people have a higher aptitude than others, but training helps strengthen and refine it."
"Do you think I could become an alchemist?" I asked.
He sat for a moment, thinking. "Why would you want to become one?"
"I want to be of use. I don't want to simply be a librarian or a secretary while I'm in this country. I'm not sure how I got here, but the likelihood that I'll get home seems slim, so I need to make a life for myself."
Edward was about to say something when the car stopped outside a huge building complex. There was a banner in front of the central building with some sort of beast on it. It looked like a lion with a fish tail. We all got out of the car and went into the building. Walking down the halls, I saw dozens of men and women in blue uniforms. A few of them had sliver pocket watches with the same lion/fish beast on them. I tapped Edward on the shoulder.
"Why are they wearing those pocket watches?"
"Those watches are given to state alchemists. I have one, too."
We went into a large office where a man was reclining in his chair with his feet propped up on the desk; he was snoring. Edward walked behind the desk and knocked the man's feet of the desk. The man shot up, snorting. He shot Edward a dirty look.
"That was uncalled for, Fullmetal."
"Lecture me later. We've got bigger problems. Lena, Cora, this is Colonel Roy Mustang," Edward said and waved at Lena and I. "Mustang, this is Cora Ayton and Lena Wilson. They came from the other side of the gate."
Mustang's eyes got darker, if that was possible. He was a good looking man. With black hair and black eyes, he was the classic tall, dark and handsome type.
"Is that so? Well, that is a problem. Ladies, why don't you have a seat," Mustang said in a cool voice. He set his elbows on the desk and steepled his fingers, smirking. Uh-oh. Lena looked at him with a 'deer-in-the-headlights' look. We took a seat.
"To get to the point of this conversation, why don't you tell me how you got here," he said.
"Havoc drove us," Lena said. I sighed and looked at the ceiling.
"Let me amend that. How did you get through to Amestris?" Mustang said.
"Oh, okay! Well, Cora and I were walking through the forests of Germany when we stumbled onto these creepy hooded guys chanting in a circle. We tried to run away, but they caught us and tied us up and put us in this circle with this other man. We managed to get untied but we got sucked into this black hole. I don't remember anything between getting sucked in and falling to the ground. I just wish my landing was as interesting as Cora's. She landed on Ed," she said. Mustang looked from me to Edward, the smirk on his face growing wider.
"That about sums it up," I said, not looking at him. I looked at Edward, who had turned bright red. I looked back at Mustang. "Since Edward's dumping us here, what are your plans for us?"
"Is he? That's news to me. Why aren't they going with you, Ed?"Mustang asked.
"I don't have to the time or the patience to take on two more people!" Edward said.
"I don't mind staying here. I'm only really qualified for secretarial work, anyway," Lena said, looking over at Havoc and smiling.
"Well, I do! I don't have the temperament to be a secretary or a librarian. I was talking to Edward earlier about becoming an alchemist," I said.
Mustang shot Edward a questioning look. He looked uncomfortable. "We weren't really talking about it. She was asking questions about alchemy. She asked if she could become one, but we pulled up to Central before I could answer."
"Were you going to say I couldn't learn?" I asked.
"No, that's not what I meant. It's not as easy as it sounds," he said.
"I didn't figure it would be. I never do anything easy," I said.
Edward was quiet for a minute, then said, "I know someone who may be able train you, but she's… difficult."
Mustang let out a bark of laughter. "Difficult? She's tougher than all the men around here combined!"
"I don't care about difficult! I care about results. Can she train me?" I asked.
"It's not about 'can she'? It's about 'will she'?" Edward said. He turned and started to the door. "I'll be back later. There's a call I need to make." And with that, he left.
"What now?" I asked Mustang.
"Now, I set both of you up with a room. Havoc, I trust you can find your way to the female barracks," he said.
"Like the back of my hand," Havoc said. He opened the door for Lena and I, while Mustang picked up the phone and asked for someone named General Armstrong.
"Well, that went better than I thought it would. I thought we were going to wind up in some lab with strange tubes sticking out all over," Lena said.
"That's because you have an over active imagination," I said.
"I prefer to think of it as a rich, inner world," she said.
"I know. And that why I love you," I said.
It took the three of us about twenty minutes to walk to the women's barracks. Havoc pulled out a key and unlocked the door. He led us down the hall to the eighth door on the left, right next to the exit door.
"Second lieutenant, why do you have a key to the women's barracks?" Lena asked.
Havoc smiled. "Why do you think?"
I rolled my eyes and left them to their own devices. The room was medium sized, about thirty feet by fifteen feet with a bed on each side of the room. As I was looking around the room, I heard a crash behind me. I turned, but didn't know what to make of the scene behind me. Standing in the hall was a man. A tall, muscular, shirtless man. Surrounded by pink sparkles and flexing.
"Miss Ayton! Miss Wilson! I am General Alex Louis Armstrong! Please allow me to be your security detail!" he said.
My mouth just hung open before I squeaked out, "Okay." What else can you say to someone like that? Lena went up to him and started pulling the pink sparkles out of the air.
"Do you think I can make a wish on these? I know they're not stars, but I think they could just as good," she said.
The general blinked at her before sweeping her up onto his right shoulder and shouting, "Finally, a girl who appreciates my sparkles!" He took off running down the hall with Lena still on his shoulder.
"Can you go collect them?" I asked Havoc.
"I'll try, but something tells me I'm going to need a tranquilizer dart to do it," he said and went after them.
I threw myself onto the bed nearest the window and waited for them to come back. The three of them arrived half an hour later. The general positioned himself outside of our room and Lena said good night to Havoc. Lena laid down on her bed, smiling.
"I have a date with Havoc on Saturday," she said.
"So fast?"
"Yes. I like him. He's funny and he doesn't seem to mind my quirks."
"Well, that's good. He seems like a nice guy." We were quiet for a while after that.
"Cora, do you think we'll do alright here? I mean, it's so different from home."
"I'm sure we'll do fine, Len. If we can survive your mother and my father, we can survive anything."
She smiled. "I guess you're right. Well, we should get some sleep. We've probably got a big day tomorrow."
"Goodnight, Len."
"Goodnight, Cor."