Before I go on, this chapter's solution to what happened to poor Nina was a response to calls for me to save her while writing Saligia. A pity I couldn't implement it in that work...

TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES

CHAPTER 4:

TUCKER

The train trip was somewhat eventful, to say the least. They made their way to Youswell briefly, and dealt with a rather greedy man by the name of Yoki, though Harry was far from impressed by the town's attitude to Edward. Understandable, yes, but they treated him like dirt because he had links to the military, even if Edward was nothing like the more militaristic State Alchemists. Edward never made it a secret that he used the military to use its resources.

Then, there were those terrorists on the train to East City. Harry had more difficulty dealing with Death Eaters, even with alchemy instead of magic. And he got to see Roy Mustang's brand of alchemy, which was impressive, if he hadn't seen fire spells ranging from Incendio all the way up to Fiendfyre.

Edward, having discussed the chimera in Liore with Mustang, wanted to find out more about bio-alchemy. Given that they had learned Bradley was a Homunculus, the Elrics, Harry and Luna resolved to keep quiet about it to Mustang, in case it made things worse. Edward could hardly believe that Harry, Luna, and Lust had enjoyed an hour's hedonism while he was fighting off Cornello and his goons, as well as tricking him into revealing their plans.

He had also asked to use the Resurrection Stone to talk to his mother. It was something of a sad but heartwarming sight to see Trisha Elric talk to her sons, and when Edward handed it back he had said, "That could be addicting as hell. Don't give it to me ever again."

In any case, the quartet of alchemists had been ferried to the home of Shou Tucker, the Sewing Life Alchemist, another civilian who was a State Alchemist only relatively loosely attached to the military. He was probably best known for creating a chimera that could talk just under two years ago, which was how he got his accreditation. Of course, its only words were I want to die, repeated until it managed to starve itself to death. So, a wonderfully sentimental story about wishes being granted then.

They were greeted at the door by an absolutely massive dog who pounced on Ed, knocking him prone with his weight, and then a girl of about four with brown hair greeting the visitors happily. "Dad, look, we've got guests today!"

"And you let Alexander roam," said a rather morose-looking man with blonde hair and glasses, a little dishevelled. "I'm so sorry about this," he added.

Shou Tucker (for that was the man who had come to the door) led the quartet, along with Mustang, into his house. Harry noted it hadn't been cleaned properly for a while. Tucker claimed it was due to his wife leaving him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Edward Elric," Shou said. "I've heard of the exploits of the youngest State Alchemist. And I have heard of your brother as well." He looked at Harry and Luna. "I'm not sure I knew of anyone else who travelled with you."

"These guys only joined us recently," Edward said. "Harry Potter, and Luna Lovegood. They're self-taught alchemists, but they're pretty damn good. Helped us catch the Freezing Alchemist."

"How interesting," Tucker said. Harry realised that Luna was tensing up slightly in the man's presence. "So, what can I do for you, Edward Elric?"

"Edward's interested in bio-alchemy research," Mustang answered for the blonde teenager. "As you're the leading authority in this city in the field, I thought he could look at your research notes."

"Of course he can," Tucker said. "But alchemy is about Equivalent Exchange, as you very well know. I'll show you what's up my sleeve, Edward, providing you reciprocate."

Roy nearly protested, but Edward, resigned, removed his coat, revealing his automail arm. Over tea, Edward and Alphonse related their story.

Tucker, his usually mournful face becoming even more so, murmured, "A tragic story. The loss of your mother spurred you to such…extreme measures."

"As far as my superiors are concerned, he lost his arms during the Ishvalan Civil War. His attempt at human transmutation is a secret of the highest level, Dr Tucker," Mustang reminded the Sewing Life Alchemist.

"Of course," Tucker agreed. "The military can't afford to lose someone of his prodigious talent. I'll show you my lab, and then I'll show you my library."

The laboratory was little more than a room filled with cages, where grotesque hybrids of animals writhed, growled, and screeched. Tucker said, apologetically, "It's never easy making a chimera of any kind. Biological fusion often causes a lot of problems. My personal library is this way."

He opened a door to a room filled with shelves upon shelves of textbooks and notebooks. Edward gaped in awe. "Wow, this is…great. Thanks, Dr Tucker!"

"You're welcome. I'll be in the lab, working, if you need me."

Edward and Al picked some shelves to start. Harry followed Luna as she skipped over to another one. Mustang told them he would send his people to pick them up at the end of the day. Already, Edward and Al were concentrating on their files, while Luna and Harry were still searching for what files they intended to read. Tucker and Mustang made a comment on the Elrics' ability to focus on their task, before they took their leave of them.

Once the door had closed, Harry asked Luna, quietly, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know…just a feeling," she said, pulling out a notebook and handing it to Harry. "You know I can't always see everything, or understand everything. I would go mad. Well, more than I already am."

"All interesting people are a little mad."

"Who said I'm only a little mad?" Luna asked wryly.

Harry opened up the notebook, only to have a piece of paper flutter to the ground. He picked it up, and frowned at it. It was some sort of transmutation circle, and whatever it was, he didn't like the look of it. He pocketed it, just in case. The notebook itself was rather dry and boring, a series of observations of the talking chimera Tucker had created. There was something about the cold, detached language that set Harry's teeth on edge. Tucker had even given it a name: Echidna. He thought an echidna was a spiked mammal from Australia. Luna, however, pointed out that the name came from Greek mythology, meaning a mother of monsters.

The other notebooks were somewhat better. There was less of that cold, dry attitude in the other notebooks. After a couple of hours, he went to stretch his legs, as did Luna. He asked Tucker if he could get a glass of water, and was given the okay. As he filled a glass of water, though, he looked out the window, and saw, across the street, a man standing, dressed in a white shirt and hooded jacket, black trousers, and tinted glasses. He had dark skin, white hair, and an X-shaped scar across his head. He could have been Ishvalan, but even if he hadn't been wearing dark glasses, they wouldn't have been able to see the distinctive red eyes.

Luna saw him too. "Well, well…either he is desperate for real estate, or he is watching someone here. Maybe Dr Tucker? Or us?"

The man seemed to notice Harry and Luna in the window. He briefly whipped out a camera, and took a picture, before he walked away. Harry frowned. "Hang on a moment…didn't the Elrics tell us that Sirius went around with an Ishvalan with an X-shaped scar on his forehead?"

Luna nodded. "If Sirius doesn't know about us being here yet, he will soon."

"Always assuming he's still alive."

"The State Military seems to think so. I don't think they'd do that if they knew he was dead."

Later, Al got into playing with Nina, which Luna joined in. Edward berated them, only to be tackled by a playful Alexander, who was chased by Edward. Harry chuckled at the antics, but continued reading through the notebooks.

At the end of it, Edward was tired when Jean Havoc came around to pick them up. When he wondered what had happened, considering that Edward was sprawled underneath a triumphant Alexander, Edward claimed that he was taking a break from intensive research.

To which Tucker could only reply, "Well, after all that, you must be dog-tired.(1)" He chuckled at the exasperated look on Edward's face. "Feel free to come back tomorrow."

As they left, Havoc said, "By the way, before I forget, the Colonel told me to give you a message. Your Assessment Day is coming soon."

Tucker seemed to freeze, before saying, "Yes, I know."

As they got in the car back to their hotel, Harry asked, "Assessment Day?"

Edward nodded. "State Alchemists who aren't actually part of the military per se have to complete an annual assessment by presenting their research. I'll have to do mine soon. Anyway, if you get a bad assessment one year, you have another year to present a favourable assessment, or else they'll strip you of your status as a State Alchemist."

Havoc offered his tuppence worth. "And Tucker had a bad assessment last year. Not as much original or groundbreaking research. He'd better come up with something good this year, or he'll get stripped of his status. He'll also lose the grant money: no use in funding a useless State Alchemist after all. I know it's tough, given that he has a kid and all, but he should be able to find work anyway."

Luna was frowning quietly to herself. "Two years…" she murmured.

"Sorry, what?" Harry asked.

"Nina said her mother left them two years ago…"

Luna kept whatever was bothering her to herself, and the next day, they went back to the house, and alternated between research and playing with Nina and Alexander. Nina admitted to feeling lonely, as her father was frequently isolated in his laboratory. However, a dark pall seemed to hang over Luna. And Harry began to realise a possible reason why. Two years…

Tucker's wife disappeared at roughly the same time as a talking chimera was created by him. But how could they prove it? Assuming it was true?

Unfortunately, they got the proof on the third day. The house was dark, and rainclouds were gathering, as if the weather itself was in on what was going on. They eventually found Tucker in his laboratory, squatting next to some sort of animal. "Oh, hi, it's you guys. Look, my latest creation: a chimera that talks like a human."

The chimera looked vaguely like a dog, or maybe a little leonine, with a mane of fur that looked vaguely like hair. It stared at them with soulful eyes. Harry had a very, very bad feeling about this.

"Come on, listen," Tucker said, before speaking to the chimera. "See that person? That is Edward."

"Ed…Edward?" the creature asked, in a distorted growl of a voice that seemed vaguely pitiful.

"Yes, very good. You did well."

"Did…well?"

"It really does talk," Edward said in astonishment.

"And it really saved my bacon," Tucker said, standing and moving over to a desk. "Just in time for Assessment Day. That grant money is badly needed."

Harry and Luna stood in horror, not trusting themselves to speak as Edward gently petted the chimera on its head. "Edward? Edward?" the chimera parroted. Then, it spoke three syllables, two words, that brought it home to Edward what he was dealing with.

"Big brother?"

A clap of thunder punctuated the revelation. Luna and Harry could see the revelation in his posture. Quietly, all too-calmly, he asked, "Dr Tucker…you got that licence for the talking chimera two years ago, didn't you?"

"Of course. My wife ran out on me just before I attained it."

"Then I have one more question for you. Where the hell is Nina and Alexander?!"

You could see the moment when the mask came off. Oh, you could see the glimpses of something furtive beneath, but you could have chalked that down to a man who was merely nervous, neurotic. But now, you could see the true man beneath as he glared at Edward, and muttered, "Perceptive little bastard, aren't you?"

There was no remorse at being caught. Just a petty anger at work interrupted. Harry charged forward, pushing Edward aside, and slammed Tucker into the wall, before clapping his hands together, and slamming them into the wall. Bands of wood spat out of the wall and wrapped around the evil alchemist, restraining him. "I should have realised it sooner," Harry hissed. "Or rather, I should have believed that a man willing to do that to his own wife would have no qualms about doing that to his own daughter. Luna got a bad vibe from you. And she's rarely wrong."

Tucker scoffed. "A lunatic ditz who doesn't understand the value of scientific advances."

"Shut up," Edward snarled. "There's lines you shouldn't cross, like using humans in stuff like this!"

"You'd know all about that, wouldn't you, Fullmetal Alchemist? Your righteous anger is nothing more than hypocritical whining! You and I, we are so much alike, meddling in fields that fools call forbidden. It's only through this that real progress is made!"

"SHUT UP!" Edward yelled. "WE ARE NOT THE SAME!"

"YOU'RE LYING TO YOURSELF, FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST! YOU PUSHED BACK THE BOUNDARIES BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT WE DO TO BOUNDARIES! FORBIDDEN FRUIT IS ALWAYS THE MOST TEMPTING!"

Edward began punching, screaming angrily at Tucker, before Al intervened, holding back his fist. "Brother! Stop it. Or he'll die."

"Yeah, listen to your little brother, Edward," Tucker taunted.

"Not another word, Tucker," Al said quietly. "Or I'll lose control."

Luna merely walked over to him, and gazed evenly at him. "What?" Tucker asked.

His only response was a wad of spit to the face. Harry was shocked. Luna had never spat on anyone before. Her eyes now glimmered with contempt and loathing. She then walked over to Nina.

Meanwhile, Harry pulled the drawing of the transmutation circle out of his pocket. As he looked at it, Tucker demanded, "Where did you find that? I was looking for it last night!"

"Why? Is this what circle you used to fuse Nina and Alexander?" Harry asked. Tucker's silence was damning, and when Harry's eyes returned to it, he felt the knowledge the Gate had given him plucking away at the symbols and lines…until he saw how it worked. And more importantly, he had an idea. It was a chance in a million, but…

"Give that back to me you thief! There are harsh penalties for stealing the work of a State Alchemist!" Tucker snarled.

"Edward…call Mustang. Tell him to bring us…and Nina back to his headquarters."

"But why? We can't do anything to help her, can we?" Alphonse asked.

"I think we have a slight chance of doing so."

A few hours later, Shou Tucker was alone in his house, with only a couple of guards outside his mansion. Why couldn't they understand how important his research was? Sacrifices needed to be made. And yet, those thieves and hypocrites had stolen his work away. Mustang refused to listen to him, that pyromaniacal bully. He took the word of a quartet of young snoops and thieves over that of a respected State Alchemist!

Suddenly, he heard the front door creak open. And then, the heavy tread of footsteps…

Nina, tranquilised, lay in the middle of a circle the Elrics were chalking out under Luna and Harry's careful direction. Luna had corrected many of the symbols in Harry's transmutation circle, and suggested a few different renderings of the geometric shapes.

Mustang looked on, his face set in anger and horror. "Can you really reverse what happened to her?" he asked.

"It's possible. But it's risky, obviously," Harry said. "The problem is, Nina and Alexander are now one being. We can't separate the two of them without one of them dying in the process. The problem is, we don't know which one."

"Who's there?!" Shou Tucker demanded as the door to his room opened.

A man in a hooded coat, dark glasses, an X-shaped scar on his forehead, and with dark skin and white hair was standing in the entrance. He was an imposing man. If looks could kill, Tucker would be a smoking spot on the ground. "Shou Tucker, the Sewing Life Alchemist."

"Yes, that's me, but who are you? What did you do to the guards?"

"The guards shall sleep for the moment. They are not my target. You are."

"Okay…here goes nothing…" Harry said.

"But what if you're wrong?" Edward asked.

"Then we failed trying to do the right thing," Luna said.

The four young alchemists, as Mustang watched on, slammed their hands to the ground, activating the circle, which lit up. The energies of an alchemic reaction began to consume the chimera that was Nina…

Suddenly, the scarred man lunged, gripping Tucker's head painfully. "All alchemists stray from the path of God, but you more so than others. You may not have been involved in the Ishvalan War, but your crimes are still abhorrent. Your judgement is nigh."

Tucker had no time to scream before the scarred man lashed out with his other hand, and gripped his neck. With incredible strength, the man crushed his windpipe, before gripping his head in two hands now, and then twisting. The last thing Tucker heard was his own neck breaking…

An explosion of blood splattered across the circle, and when Mustang lowered his forearm, he found himself looking at two bloodsoaked forms in the circle. It was impossible to tell which one was still alive.

At least till one of them stirred and moaned. Mustang whipped off his coat, and draped it around the shivering, bloodstained form. Which then looked at him with large, sad eyes, and then back at the other form, before saying, "Alexander…no…"

It was heartwrenching to see Nina Tucker, now apparently back to normal, crying over the corpse of her pet dog. But the Elrics, Harry, Luna and Mustang felt the faintest glimmer of triumph. They'd managed to save Nina from a horrible fate. And that was worth witnessing the sorrow of a little girl who otherwise would have been a misshapen creature for the rest of her life…

CHAPTER 4 ANNOTATIONS:

It's the Shou Tucker bit. And yes, I'm sorry if this bit where Nina is saved is somewhat contrived. I wanted to do this while writing my pure Fullmetal Alchemist fic, Saligia. One of the reviewers, Alchemical Guest, wanted Nina to be saved in that work, but I decided not to. However, for this fic, I decided to have some means of saving Nina. In case you're wondering why Shou left the circle he used to create a chimera out where anyone could find it, well, he had simply put it into the notebook absentmindedly and forgot about it. I was going to have Luna do the circle to save Nina, before I decided to have Harry do most of it. I hope you like the fact that Nina survives this iteration of the Fullmetal Alchemist story.

Review-answering time! Emdee: A Leonine contract is basically a contract done under duress. The term comes from the Aesop fable The Lion and His Fellow Hunters. A good, if extreme, example would be the contract Kyuubey offers to Mami when she's dying in a car accident in Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Mami either signs the contract and survives, or else dies.

1. I love this line in the dub version of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It works so much better than the more literal translation, especially with Chuck Huber's delivery.