Ninjagirl: Wow this is more popular than I thought...XD cool! Anyway, I forgot the disclaimer last time so I shall see if I can get someone to do it this time...OI! ED!

Ed: -walks in- What?

Ninjagirl: Can you do the disclaimer?

Ed: -blinks- Why?

Ninjagirl: -holds up cookie- I'll give you a cookie!

Ed: O_O -staring at cookie- BlackNinjagirl does not own Fullmetal Alchemist, only Rai and this story. Now gimme cookie!

Ninjagirl: -hands it over- Good boy.

Ed: -_-+

Ninjagirl: Anyway, Here's chapter two! Enjoy!

The Lightning Alchemist Chronicles--Finding the Stone

By BlackNinjagirl

Chapter Two: Nina and the Chimera

Sure enough, Ed passed, though Al had to drop out of the Exam due to complications, and Rai happened to be in the office when Ed walked in to get his stuff.

Rai blinked upon seeing Ed again, then grinned. "Well, well, if it isn't Ed. I heard you passed the Exam."

Ed grinned. "Yep, with flying colors too."

"What'd you do to pass?"

Ed crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow. "What's it matter to you?"

Rai looked at Mustang. "You were there for the Exam, what'd he do?"

"Transmutation without a circle," Mustang replied.

Rai snorted. "I could do that."

Ed glared at her. "You've been a State Alchemist for a year already!"

Rai stuck her tongue out at him, which only seemed to make Ed madder.

Mustang sighed. "Rai, get out of my office if you're not going to behave yourself."

Rai huffed. "Fine, fine, I'll be good."

Mustang turned to Ed, tossing him his watch. "You might need this."

Ed caught it easily. "I was expecting a ceremony with trumpets or something."

"Okay," Mustang told him, "Congrats, Ed--you're a dog of the military."

Rai glared at Mustang. "Very funny, Mustang."

Ed blinked at her. "What's so funny about it?"

Rai rolled her eyes. "I was being sarcastic, Ed--he told me the same thing when I got my own watch."

Mustang sighed. "Rai, I said behave."

Rai huffed. "I am."

"Not with interrupting me you're not," Mustang snapped back, Rai glaring at him before turning her back to him but not Ed, huffing again in something close to annoyance. "Havoc," he continued as if they hadn't been interrupted, "take Ed back to Tucker's."

"Yes, sir," said a man with blonde hair on top of his head in something of a military cut before walking out, Ed starting to follow.

"Hey, Ed," Rai called after the newer State Alchemist, "tell Al I said hi. Tell Tucker and Nina I said hi too."

Ed stopped and nodded at her. "I'll do that." He waved at her. "See you around, Rai!"

Rai smiled and waved back. "Later, Ed!" she called as he ran off after Havoc.

Mustang grinned at her. "So…got some new friends, do we?"

Rai punched his arm with her own right arm. "Shut it."

Mustang just chuckled.

A couple of days later, Rai was watching the phone like she always did when Mustang was away from his office, and she was sitting in his seat with her feet on the desk and her hands piled behind her head, looking quite comfortable, when the phone rang.

Rai picked it up and put it to her ear. "Central Headquarters, Lieu--"

"Cut the introductions, Rai," came Mustang's voice through the phone. "There's a serial killer on the loose."

Rai dropped her feet off of the desk and sat up in the chair. "What? A serial killer? Where is the bastard?"

"He's struck again. We found bodies in an alleyway. Ed's with us, though, so don't worry about him, he's fine."

"Where are you guys? I want there in case any of you pass out--then I can poke fun at you about it."

She heard Mustang sigh. "This is serious, Rai--we don't know who he'll go after next."

"I know that, Colonel. I'm being serious about going there, though." She sighed herself. "The truth is, I'm worried about you guys. The killer might still be there."

Mustang snorted. "You, worried about us. That's a first."

"Oh shut it. Anyway, you think I could get a ride there?"

"I'm sure we can arrange it," she heard him say, and she swore his voice had a smug ring to it as she heard a car pull up outside.

She smirked. "You know me too well, Colonel. My ride's here, I'll meet up with you in a few minutes."

"See you then," Mustang replied before he hung up, Rai following suit before grabbing her jacket and running out of the office.

The car dropped her off at an alleyway, and she saw everyone there--Hughes, Mustang, Hawkeye, Havoc, and a guy she knew but didn't remember his name. She even spotted Ed's red jacket through the blue as she walked up.

"Alright, I'm here," she announced, pushing through Mustang, Havoc, and Hughes to stand next to Ed, and blinked when she saw the cover over what she assumed was a body.

"That makes five," Hughes commented, sighing.

Rai turned to look at him. "He's gotten five now?"

"Hasn't investigations found anything yet?" Mustang asked Hughes.

"Don't blame us," Hughes retorted.

Hawkeye, who was trying to console the kid that was crying over the body, started to pull him away, the kid not letting go of the cover so that it was pulled off, revealing the body.

Rai was shocked at how mutilated it looked, and actually had to turn away at the memories it conjured up…memories she would rather have forgotten…

She glanced over at Ed and saw he seemed deeply shaken, but not by the body--rather, memories it seemed to conjure up for him as it had her, and he passed out not long after.

She gasped and caught him. Whatever memories that brought up for him must not have been good. She glanced down at his automail hand, which was covered by the glove. Maybe it was like me--he tried to bring back a loved one and failed, losing a limb instead. But, that's for him to tell me when he's ready to.

She watched as Hughes picked him up and carried him off, Hawkeye covering the body back again, and she stood back up.

"Ed will be okay, though, right?" Rai asked Mustang, sounding a little worried.

Mustang chuckled. "He'll be fine."

Rai watched Ed being put into a car. "I'm not so sure…"

Rai walked up to the Tucker Estate and knocked on the door, Alexander coming out at the sound. "Uh oh…Alexander! No jumping. No jumping! GAAAAH!!!"

Alexander jumped anyway--and landed Rai on her stomach with Alexander on top of her.

"Oh, hello, Rai," Tucker greeted her, Nina squealing upon seeing her.

"Wittle Big Bwodew said you said hi, Wai," Nina told her.

Rai grinned despite being pinned beneath a Labrador. "I came to see if Ed was awake yet."

"Not yet," Tucker told her. "You can come see him yourself."

"I might need a little help getting Alexander off first, though."

It wasn't long before she was upstairs in the room with Ed, and the sight of seeing him unconscious with his hair loose nearly set her off drooling--who knew he looked so damn cute like that? Especially shirtless, with his automail gleaming like new…

She shook her head, snapping herself out of it, and heard him murmur, "Mom…I'm so sorry…"

I was right, she thought with a sigh. He tried to bring back a loved one, just as I did…

"I'm going to go play with Nina," she told Tucker. "Let me know when he wakes up, will you?"

"You aren't going to wait yourself?" Tucker asked her.

"Nah, I hate waiting. I just wanted to see if he was alright and not sent into a coma from that."

Tucker nodded. "Are you sure it was that or to confirm something?"

Rai shrugged. "I'm not sure…but I am glad he's okay."

She turned to walk out when she heard him start awake, and turned back to see him looking at the ceiling, and she had to turn back around to keep from drooling--he looked even cuter when his eyes were open and his hair was loose.

What the hell is wrong with me? Why am I nearly drooling over Ed? She sighed. This is getting confusing. She shook her head and walked out of the room.

The next day, Rai was again watching the office while Mustang was away on some unknown business--military business she figured the Fuhrer had given him--and the phone rang.

Rai, of course, picked it up. "Central Headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Roy Mustang's office."

"Rai? Where's Mustang? I need to talk to him." The voice was none other than Hughes's, and he sounded serious--Rai knew he only sounded like that when something bad had happened.

"Oh, hello, Hughes. Mustang's out at the moment." She heard the serious tone in his voice and frowned. "Why? What happened?"

"You remember Nina?"

She blinked. "Of course I remember Nina--I told Ed to tell her hi when he left after he got his State Alchemist's watch. As a matter of fact, I got back from visiting her not long ago." She frowned. "Did something happen to her?"

"She was turned into a chimera and killed."

Rai was stunned. "What?! Who the hell--?!"

"I'm not done yet, Rai. Tucker was the one who did it--fused his daughter and his dog."

"He what?!?!"

"Ask Ed and Al--they were there."

Rai had to hold back a gasp. Ed and Al saw that? "I'm coming over there."

"It's better you don't, Rai--Ed's kind of moody after seeing it."

"All the more reason!" she yelled back.

"Hughes, give me the phone," she heard Mustang say in the background, and she heard him hand it over before Mustang said, "Look, Rai, I'm bringing them back to Central and you can calm them down there, alright?"

She sighed in relief. "Thanks, Mustang."

"Hey, they're your friends."

Rai growled, one of her eyebrows twitching. "I thought I told you to shut it about that."

She heard him chuckle. "You know it's too much fun to tease you."

The eyebrow continued twitching. "Then maybe you should listen to Hughes's suggestion to find yourself a good wife, eh, Flame Alchemist?"

The only response she got from that was a dial tone, indicating he'd hung up, and she giggled, pulling the phone away from her ear and sticking her tongue out at it as if she was doing it to Mustang himself before she put it back on the receiver to wait on them to show up.

"Hum," she mused to herself, "I wonder what Ed's State Alchemist nickname will be? Hopefully nothing to do with being short--he'd likely kick someone's ass for that."

She continued pondering over his State Alchemist nickname until the door opened and Mustang walked in, Hawkeye following him as always, and Ed and Al right behind them.

"Any calls while I was out?" Mustang asked her as she hopped up from the seat to let him sit down, walking over to Ed and Al instead.

"None other than Hughes's call, which you already know about," Rai replied before turning to Ed, who looked shaken. "Hey, you alright, Ed?"

"He'll be fine," Mustang interjected, making them look at him to find him holding an envelope, which Rai recognized. "I have something for you, Ed."

Rai ran over and took it, running back over to Ed. "Here," she told him with a grin. "I'm pretty sure I know what it is anyway. Go on, open it!"

Ed blinked at her and took it, opening it and pulling out a paper, Rai going behind him and looking over his shoulder to see what it said.

"Well?" Mustang asked him. "Read it."

" 'It is hereby declared by Fuhrer King Bradley, that Edward Elric be dubbed the Fullmetal Alchemist,' " Ed read out loud before looking at Mustang. "What is this?"

Rai grinned. "Cool, so Ed's the Fullmetal Alchemist! And I thought it was going to be something different…like, I don't know, the Redcoat Alchemist?"

Ed glared at her. "Redcoat? What?"

"Well you do wear a red coat…"

"So do you."

Rai scratched her head. "Eh…good point."

"Anyway, Ed, I have a job for you," Mustang said, interrupting them. "There's an inspection job that needs doing in the East. I want you to go there."

Rai stepped forward. "Permission to accompany him."

Mustang blinked at her, as did Ed and Al. "What? Why?" the Lieutenant Colonel asked her.

Rai gave him a serious look. "You know what he just saw, and he hasn't recovered from it yet. Do you honestly intend on just letting him go in his current emotional condition, even if it is with his brother?"

Mustang thought that over. "You have a point, Lightning. Alright, permission granted."

Rai let a relieved smile break out across her face.

"All right, both of you are leaving tomorrow--you'd better be ready then," Mustang added. "Dismissed."

Both alchemists saluted and walked out, Ed looking at her once they were outside of the office.

"Why'd you do that?" he demanded. "I would have been fine with just Al."

"Listen, you," Rai told him, poking his chest with a finger, "I just kept your ass out of trouble. Mustang would have likely sent someone else with you if I hadn't volunteered, so shut your mouth and be glad it's me and not some creepy bastard, alright?"

Al looked at Ed. "She has a point, Brother."

"Also," Rai added, "I'm still curious as to how you got that automail in the first place, and something tells me I'm going to have to get you to trust me first, and I'm going to have to trust you if I tell you how I got mine. We made a deal, after all."

Ed smiled slightly. "Yes, we did." He gave her a long look. "Thanks."

Rai waved a hand at him. "Ah, don't mention it. Now we'd better get back and pack, or Mustang might barbeque us tomorrow morning."

Both she and Ed winced at that. "Ouch," Ed commented.

"Yeah, not fun--he actually did that to me once when I accidentally hit him with a bolt. It hurts like hell." She looked at him. "We'll meet here tomorrow morning. Sound good?"

Ed thought a minute, then nodded. "Alright."

Rai nodded and turned to walk off. "See you, then," she told them before walking off.

"Bye," Ed called after her before turning to Al, both of them walking off a different direction. "Hey, Al, did you expect her to do something like that?"

Al shook his head. "She didn't seem like the kind of person who would do that."

Ed nodded at him. "That's what I thought, too. Apparently we were both wrong about her." He frowned. "She's an odd one…"

Ninjagirl: Time to reply to reviews.

SpringforSummer14: I already have several chapters written…I'll try and put them up every two weeks.

Kallypso: Oh really? Huh, I might have to read that then. XD Sounds interesting. And believe me, it gets interesting.

VioletLily2010: XD You'll see. It gets good later.

three reviews already. XD Awesome! Luv ya guys! See you next chapter!