Joseph's eyes were boring into his sister; not once would he look to the Elric brothers "Would you give my sister and I privacy, Fullmetal?" Rosalyn flinched, hearing her brother's tone. It was truly amazing how much he sounded like their father.
Edward's eyes narrowed to glare at Joseph before looking at Rosalyn. Obviously Ed didn't trust a dog of the state, even though he was one himself. All Rosalyn did was nod to reassure Ed that she would be fine. "Come on, Al." Ed grumbled as he had left the room reluctantly with Alphonse following behind him.
Even after the door closed behind Ed and Alphonse there was a long silence left in the room until Joseph began to move to the only window in the room. "You shouldn't have left home, Rosalyn. Father will be furious." Joseph spoke, but it seemed he wasn't paying much attention to Rosalyn.
"Who cares? I barely know the guy." Rosalyn stared at her brother. The blue uniform complimented Joseph, considering his whole demeanor was strictly military.
"Damn it, Rosalyn. Do you ever think of anyone else?" Joseph snapped. His temper was short just like Rosalyn's. Already Rosalyn could tell the conversation wasn't going to be good. "Do you not realize that if Father's reputation is tarnished it's not just him who will pay? It'll be me and you too!"
"Are you kidding me?!" Rosalyn's voice had begun to raise in volume now. Despite her pain, Rosalyn forced herself to sit up. "You call me selfish when all you care about is your damn self and your damn military reputation. Just like Dad. He never stopped to actually see how bad Mom had gotten before died!"
"Don't even try saying that bullshit! Father always trie-"
"Don't give me that! Dad never gave a damn if Mom was sick or not! All she was to him was someone to carry a son for him and then when I was born he was done with her!" Rosalyn's voice roared over her brother's at this point which finally got him to shut his mouth. Before Joseph could speak again, Rosalyn had begun yelling again. "Just get the hell out of my room! No one asked for you to come and visit me!"
Joseph sighed with frustration and maybe some regret before he began to walk to the door. As the moment came for him to open the door, Joseph stopped. "Rosalyn before I go, I was wondering; do you still have the marks on your hands?"
"Yeah. What about them?" Rosalyn snapped again, obviously still heated from the conversation just moments before.
"I told you in my last letter that I had found some information out about them." Joseph paused, allowing Rosalyn just enough time to remember what he was talking about. "None of the books I read carried any information about them, but I did find something out about an old Laboratory having to deal with the research in forbidden Alchemy. Look Rosalyn if you are going to go further into research about the marks, you might want to start there. Just promise me….." Again Joseph paused. "Just be careful."
Rosalyn hadn't been looking at her brother when left, but when she heard the click of the door being closed, Rosalyn found herself fighting back tears. "Stupid jerk, just like Dad…" Rosalyn hadn't even been alone for five minutes before Edward came barging in.
Edward's eyes stopped to stare at Rosalyn. It seemed Edward was going to speak, but before he could, Alphonse barged in right behind him, knocking the elder brother halfway across the room. It toke the shrimp about a minute or so to get back up, but when he had his temper exploded. "Hey! Watch where you're going Al! Didn't you see I was standing there?!"
Alphonse stood with his hands up in a form of defense against his elder brother. "Sorry Ed I didn't see you standing there." Al's voice came to a complete stop when he realized what he had actually said.
"Did you just call me short?!" Ed's voice rose, but when he heard Rosalyn begin laughing, he stopped. "What's so funny, huh?" Edward's voice had become quieter than, but still it was obvious that he was mad.
"Why do you get so mad because you're short?" Rosalyn couldn't stop from giggling again. Even though Ed was about Rosalyn's height, he still threw a temper tantrum like a little kid. It was kind of cute in a funny way.
"Short?! I'm not short!" Ed's voice rose again, but his voice was drowned out by Al's and Rosalyn's laughter. For a while Rosalyn had actually forgotten the whole conversation that she had with her brother during his visit.
After two days of staying in the Hospital, Rosalyn had finally been able to stand up. The first thing Rosalyn had gone to do was going to the window and just looks to her surroundings. The buildings were different, but also similar. Everything in Central seemed so familiar to her though, this was probably because when her mother was still alive, Rosalyn would come to the city with the woman.
Never had she heard about the Laboratories though. It was probably kept hush-hush by the military, bad publicity wasn't something the military was fond of. For a moment, Rosalyn thought of asking Alphonse or Edward, but then again Rosalyn didn't want to drag them into her crazy plans. It was bad enough that she had drug Joseph into this mess.
"Hey Rosa, you're awake!" Edward's voice stated the obvious. For some reason he had begun calling her Rosa; probably found it easier to say that instead of her whole name. Eventually Al had begun to catch onto the nickname too. Rosalyn wondered where Al was since she didn't hear the sound of his metal clash together when he would move.
"So Ed is the girl I got reports about?" The sounding voice followed in after Edward's, which finally got Rosalyn to turn. Standing in the doorway to Rosalyn's hospital room was Colonel Mustang. He looked much Rosalyn's brother with his natural features being handsome, but still seemed to have some hint of strictness.
Rosalyn just stared at the Colonel. In one of the letters that Joseph sent, he had mentioned Mustang, but kept referring to him as 'that alchemist' or the 'Flame Alchemist'. Rosalyn hadn't asked much about the older man since she assumed that Joseph didn't really agree to the Colonel considering he referred to Mustang like a pest.
"Why are there reports on me? I haven't done anything since I got here." Rosalyn admitted rather with a bitter tone. It was true though, she hadn't done much to achieving her goals, so why the hell would there be any sort of report on her?
"A strange girl with long blonde hair and pale skin was seen with a serial killer around the time you arrived in Central. Many people reported that she used alchemy to help the convict escape…" Mustang paused before he toke a glance to Edward. It was as though Mustang wasn't sure if he should say the next thing on his mind, but soon after his pause he would continue. "She was seen using alchemy without drawing a Transmutation Circle."
At that point Rosalyn felt Ed's eyes dart to her. She had known not many people were able to use Alchemy without a true Transmutation circle and the marks on her hands didn't fall under the category of any Transmutation circle since there was no true record of them.
"Most people don't get that skill through just simple training." Mustang spoke again. His voice seemed on edge this time, like he was waiting for a big secret to pop out. "Edward can transmute without a circle as well, but he paid for it, through a Forbidden Alchemy. Do you know what Alchemy this is?"
Rosalyn didn't answer. How could she? She had known about the Forbidden Alchemy for so long, but still she planned to use it to meet her goals. The Alchemy that Mustang referred to was none other than Human Transmutation. As Rosalyn had begun thinking deeper about Mustang's words, she realized she was looking at Ed. Was Human Transmutation the reason why he said he was planning to get his and Al's bodies back?
"From the look on your face it's obvious that you know about Human Alchemy. " Mustang waited to continue until Rosalyn was looking at him once more. "Equal exchange is the law of Alchemy. So why is it you can transmute without a circle, but you haven't lost anything?"
Rosalyn just stared at Mustang; her memory of her mother was the first thing to pop in her head. Did her mother have something to do with Rosalyn's alchemy abilities? No she couldn't have been, Rosalyn's mother was a normal house wife just like any other mother was.
Finally when Rosalyn had begun to speak, Edward had interrupted her. "Rosa the only way you could transmute without a Transmutation circle and still have your whole body is by the Philosopher's Stone. Where did you-"Ed stopped to ask a different question. "How do you make one?"
Rosalyn just sat there with no answer. How the hell would she know? Rosalyn had started studying Alchemy when she was still living with her father and brother. It wasn't until Rosalyn had panicked when she was trying to get a kitten down from a tree because it had fallen, that she acted upon instinct and clapped her hands together and placed them upon the ground so that a giant hand would cradle the kitten before it had hit the ground.
Unfortunately, Rosalyn's father had seen the incident and chose to send his only daughter off to leave with his sister. It was his way of hiding something that he didn't approve of. Of course having a father that hated Alchemy, Rosalyn should have known to be careful when using it at home, but then again she was a mere child.
"Rosalyn? Did you hear me?" Ed's voice broke through Rosalyn's stroll down memory lane. Obviously he still wanted an answer to his question.
"How do you expect me to know how to make a Philosopher's Stone when I don't even remember ever seeing one?" Rosalyn's response shocked Edward. His eyes had grown rather serious at that point before he looked away from her.
There was a long silence after Rosalyn's words, and the person to break this silence was Mustang, who acted as though he clearing his throat to speak again. "You don't have to see the stone to come into contact with it."
As confused as she was, Rosalyn heard herself speaking. "So what are you saying? Someone put the stone in me without me knowing?" How could someone have planted the stone within her? Rosalyn hadn't had real contact with anyone expect her aunt since Rosalyn's mother died.
"It could be possible, if the person knew what they were doing." Ed spoke up, but his words were a mumble as his head rested against the side of his fist. Then before Edward could speak again, Mustang cleared his throat.
"Edward I'm going to tell you now. Leave the matter alone for now." Mustang commanded like Ed was a dog. Obviously there was something Mustang didn't want Ed digging in. Then with a glare, Mustang looked at Rosalyn. "As for you, Ms. Estalines, you will be taken to King Bradley as soon as you are well. He will be the one to decide what to do with you."
Rosalyn wasn't able to object because by the time she had actually found something to say, Mustang had slammed the door shut, leaving Rosalyn and Edward alone in the room.