A/N: I am so sorry this has been so long in coming. I was on vacation with no computer and school has been crazy...I hope you'll forgive me!
Riza knocked on the door of one of the practice rooms. The thuds coming from it had been enough to reliably inform her that one or both of the Elric boys was inside – and where the Elric boys went, Ayonn went too. Not pausing to wait for an answer, she threw the door open and paused at the sight within.
Little, blind Ayonn was not sitting against the wall where Riza had expected her to be. Instead, she was…dancing, almost, inside a vortex of flames. Ed threw himself at her, automail sharpening, and she batted him aside with a quick movement of her arm. Riza cleared her throat, and the two stilled, flames dying away and automail restoring itself.
"Hello." Ayonn seemed calm, in control. Nothing like Riza had expected from the fire dancing around her a moment before. "Are you here to practice?"
"No," Riza said. The word was like a key in a lock, unfreezing her lips and allowing her to speak the message she bore. "Colonel Mustang wishes to see Ayonn in his office." She caught the look Ed and Ayonn exchanged – well, the look Ed shot at Ayonn and the pale girl's careful, almost invisible shrug. It was odd for a blind person, but Riza had learned to ignore some oddities from their newest addition.
Standing in Colonel Mustang's office, Ayonn felt suddenly unkempt. She was sure that she was covered in dirt and scorch marks from her skirmish with Ed earlier; she could almost feel Riza's disapproving gaze. At least it isn't blood, she thought wryly.
Mustang finished scratching on his paper and rose to greet her. He gestured her to a chair, and Ayonn sat nervously. These people had been kind, yes, but it felt like they were coming to the price of kindness. The colonel came out from behind his desk and sat in a chair across from her. He held something out, and Ayonn took it by reflex.
"What is this?"
His voice was humorless. "Paper."
She resisted the temptation to incinerate his precious paper. "Yes, I know. Is there anything special about it?" The man shifted in his chair, feet shuffling on the stone ground. It was enough vibration to give Ayonn a quick view of his face – she identified the fleeting expression as curiosity. His heartbeat picked up. So there was something important about the paper. "It contains a list of four terms you spoke to Lieutenant Hawkeye four weeks ago: chikyuu mage, kasai mage, ea mage, and mizu mage." She tapped her foot, waiting for the man to get to the point, and the vibrations fixed her with a stare. "Define these, please."
Ayonn shrugged. "Earthbending, firebending, airbending, waterbending."
If he'd been a firebender, he would have had smoke curling out his mouth. "Thank you. Now define those."
"It's…elemental manipulation." She picked her words carefully, feeling like she was walking over a field of explosives. "Ancient arts that control the four elements."
Mustang leaned forward. "And you control all four. Is this typical?"
She hesitated. For some reason, Colonel Mustang made her nervous; there was an air to the man that said he knew no limits when it came to power. Her position as the Avatar wasn't something she was eager to give him, but she found herself reluctant to tell a lie. He had, after all, been good to her by his own lights. Eventually, she tapped her foot, found his eyes, and told him firmly, "No."
If Ayonn had been able to see, she would have backpedaled immediately at the look in Roy Mustang's eyes. He paused for a moment, carefully considering this new revelation. He had in his hands a powerful weapon, one with more ability than most of her own people. He had something rogue alchemists had never before seen, something they wouldn't know how to fight.
The little blind girl with the icy white eyes was a big step in becoming Fuhrer.
Mustang worded his next question carefully. "Are you able to sense the water inside bodies?"
Slowly, hesitantly, she nodded.
"Are you able to control that water?"
Ayonn sat rigid in her seat, mind reeling. It had taken a huge war and ten thousand years for her people to discover bloodbending. This…monster had thought of it in less than two months. "Of course," she said quietly, skirting around the question's intent. "It's how I heal."
She could practically feel the waves of disappointment coming off him. "Is your control strictly limited to healing?"
This, she would lie about. There was no doubt about it. Ayonn didn't even hesitate before she said, "Yes." Some small part of her cringed at the thought of the spirits sending other waterbenders to this world, waterbenders without the responsibility and morals of the Avatar. It would be catastrophe, a waking nightmare.
Don't send more, Raava. Don't!
And when Mustang dismissed her from his office, she ran straight for the practice room where she'd last felt Ed and Al.
Al was more surprised than Ed when Ayonn ran into him. They'd been walking back from the practice room after setting everything back in order; the girl had raced around the corner and bounced off his chest with a clang. She sat, dazed and clutching her head, on the ground.
"Are you all right?" Al asked, bending down to make sure there was no bleeding. "What happened?"
"Mustang is a monster," Ayonn whispered with unexpected ferocity. "A monster." She buried her head in Al's iron chest and started to cry, thin little sobs escaping like hiccups. "He wants me to be his own personal bloodbender."
Ed and Al shared a confused glance. "A bloodbender?" Ed asked, sinking into a crouch next to the crying girl. "Is that even possible?"
Ayonn looked up at him and nodded miserably. "It's forbidden. Completely taboo – but possible." She looked away from him and took a shuddering breath, stopping her tears. "I – it's a perverted form of healing. Instead of encouraging the body to work better, faster, bloodbending forces it to move in the way the bloodbender wants it to. It's the ultimate form of control."
Ed got up, eyes blazing and automail arm already growing a blade. "I'm going to kill him."