Chapter 5: A Past Revealed

Dayna opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling fan above. She moved her head to look at her surroundings and saw that she was back in the hotel room. She put her hand on her throbbing head and moaned in pain. She could hear voices coming from the other side of the room, so she decided to get up.

She raised herself put of bed and gasped as a horrible pain passed through her body, she wrapped her arms around her chest. Dayna peered inside her shirt to see part of what looked like a large bruise from under the bandages.

Dayna shifted to the end of the bed and slowly got up. Ed's coat was nearby, so she wrapped that around her and walked towards the voices.

She came forward to see Ed, Al and Roy sitting on the chair and couch by the coffee table drinking tea.

"Hi" she said, all heads turned towards her and they all got up.

"Are you ok?" asked Al.

"Yeah, I've been better. I hope you don't mind if I use your coat Ed?"

"No, I don't mind" said Ed. He walked closer to Dayna and put his arms around her. Dayna winched at the slight pain but didn't care. Ed held her tight and started to stroke her hair.

"We brought you back here and called a doctor. He said that you were going to be fine, we thought your ribs were broken but the doctor told us that you were lucky and that they weren't even bruised badly; another hit and they would have" Al informed her.

They all sat back down on the couch and Roy brought her some hot tea. Dayna took a sip and the tea felt so good as it traveled down her throat.

"I'm sorry" said Roy.

"What?"

"I'm sorry for the whole interrogation thing. I should have never stuck my nose into something you didn't want to talk about and make you angry. I'm sorry"

"That's ok"

Dayna stared at her reflection in her tea and tried to think of something to break the silence. Then something came to mind, something she just had to ask.

"Ed? You guys have done human transmutation right?"

Ed spat his tea across the table and coughed, he wiped his mouth and looked at Dayna.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, I just thought that since we're here, we should get to know each other. Also, when you came to my rescue, I saw you perform alchemy without a circle. Tell me what happened to you and Al. I don't think we should have secrets anymore"

Ed and Al told her about the life they had in Resembool and about their mother. They talked about her death and the training they did with their teacher, then the time when they performed human transmutation to bring her back, costing Ed his left leg and Al his body. Ed told her that he used his right arm to attach Al's soul to the armor, and their purpose in life to find the Philosopher's Stone.

"Wow, I'm sorry guys"

"That's ok. So, who did you try to bring back?"

Dayna turned to Ed and said,

"I didn't. I didn't bring anyone back. I've never performed human transmutation"

Everyone stared at her, not believing what she said.

"I don't understand" replied Ed.

"Well, here's my story"

"My family lived here in Mirrengard. We lived in a big house and were very happy. My mother sang to me and taught me how to take care of things and how to take care of myself. My father was an alchemist, he would make toys for me and help others by using it. We would have so much fun together, my father even started to teach me alchemy when I was four, I never got the hang of it, but my father would just smile at me and tell me not to worry, I'd get better.

When I was five, my mother got sick, I think it was the flu. I would worry about her but she would just say that it would go away in a little while, she was sick until I was six.

She died in the spring and we buried her under a tree that has the prettiest blossoms in the springtime and looked absolutely gorgeous in the autumn. When that happened, my life changed forever.

My father became distant and barely talked to anyone, including me over the next six months. He had an alchemy lab in the house and would spend most of the time locked in there. I wanted to see what he was doing in there, but the door was always locked, but I could see light coming from the crack under the door, so I knew he was doing something with his alchemy.

"One day, I woke up to hear some banging and more loud noises coming from my father's lab. I went downstairs and opened the door to the lab; I was a little surprised that he left it unlocked.

I came in the door and could see a big transmutation circle drawn on the ground and a large container of stuff in the middle of it.

'Daddy? What's going on?'

'My dear, I'm going to bring mommy back' he said as he turned to face me with a smile on his face. The smile scared me, it filled me with a strange feeling, but I didn't do anything. He said that he was going to bring mom back and I thought it would work because he was an accomplished alchemist.

He started and everything seemed to be going all right, but then the light changed color and a second wave of fear came over me.

I could hear my father screaming,

'No! No! What went wrong? I planned everything, all the calculations! Why isn't it working?'

I started to be overcome by the fear and the way my father was acting, I had no idea what was going on. I heard my father scream again and as I looked I could see thousands of tiny black hands reaching and taking hold of him. I was about to run and hide when I felt my father's hand grab my arm. He started to pull me then, I lifted off the ground as he flung me into the circle shouting,

'Take her! Leave me!'

'Daddy, what are you doing? I don't want to go!'

'Better you than me, I said I would give anything for my wife and what a better sacrifice for her soul than you! You are nothing to me, when my wife comes back, we can always have another child! One more worthy than you!'

As I came closer to the light, I saw this large, black gate. I felt the tiny hands hold me and as I looked into the gate, all of these images where being put into my head.

After, I turned my head and I could see the light starting to fade and I could see my father still screaming. My eyes grew wide with fear as the power of alchemy ripped my father to bits! I screamed and looked down to see the thing that I guess was my mother, being torn to pieces as well. Then everything went black.

"So there I was, covered in my parent's blood and lying in the middle of my father's lab as it went up in flames. I got out of the house and stood there as it burned to the ground.

I've been living on my own since I was seven years old. I discovered that I could do alchemy without a circle when I was ten, I was playing a game with myself and it happened. I was scared and tried to never use it because it was because of my father."

Ed and the others stared at Dayna in silence as she finished her story. Dayna stared at the ground.

"I promised myself that I would become stronger and never let anyone hurt me the way that my father did. Today was the first time that I've cried since it happened. That just proves to my father that he was right and that I am weak!"

She raised her head and saw Ed looking at her with hard eyes and then he slapped her across the face!

"You are an idiot if you think like that! Becoming stronger doesn't mean that you have to lock up your emotions, it's not healthy! Doing that proves that you are weak, it's ok to cry sometimes, it shows that you are human! Humans are generally weak and there's nothing that we can do about it, but we can become stronger and sometimes we have to cry because it's a way of life! If you want to stay the way you are, you can get out and go back to your shed!"

Dayna looked at Ed, staring into the golden light in his eyes. She broke down and cried like she never did, she cried for the long years that she didn't. Ed came and hugged her, stroking her hair again and crying too. He held her to his chest and let her be.

Ed kissed the top of her forehead and whispered to her,

"I promise with all my heart, that I will protect you. I will never let anything happen to you ever."
Dayna cried again.