The Rogue Alchemist

The first part in my FMA fanfiction trilogy

It was dark when I opened my eyes.  Then the light switched on, the bulbs buzzing with the electric current flowing through them.  I heard a voice cackling behind me.  The voice belonged to the infamous Barry the Butcher.  I was half asleep when he slammed the butcher knife that took my arms into my left shoulder. 

 

            I awoke a couple hours later in an alley, surprised that I wasn’t dead yet.  I was found by a young woman in a black dress.  I was taken to the hospital and treated for my wounds.  It was a shock to wake up one morning and realize that both arms were gone.  I looked at the stubs that where once my arms, and thought to myself how I am going to live like this.  The weeks after that felt like an eternity.  Then one day when I was sitting on my bed a nurse said to me “why don’t you get automail.  I heard about this great automail maker in Risenbull.  The town isn’t very far from here maybe a two day train ride”. 

 

            I thought it over and I decided to head to Risenbull and see this automail maker.  I reached the home at about noon and yelled through the door for the owner.  The owner came rushing to the door, the door opened, and a beautiful young woman was standing there.  She introduced herself as Winry Rockbell and realized what I came for.  She fitted me with a brand new design of automail that she had created.  The arms were made from a lighter metal called carbon fiber instead of the normal iron.  The automail felt good, it seemed like it was right for me.

 

            I stayed at the Rockbell shop for four days to get used to the automail.  I left the home with a thought in my mind “I must learn alchemy”, to do this I had to find a teacher.  At the time I only heard of one person that might be able to teach me the science of alchemy.  I didn’t know how easy it would be to find her.

 

            I arrived in Central with a calm demeanor.  The streets where bustling with people buying and selling goods.  The air was filled with the smell of freshly baked goods.  The woman I was searching for was a bit of an outcast, her name was Madam Gia she was said to be one the greatest alchemists of our time, but her son was killed in the war so she retired from the military, and fled into hiding. I heard rumors that she lived in the south side of central in an old abandoned house.  I arrived in south side finding many houses that were abandoned because of the whole terrorist scare a few years back. 

 

            The houses where covered in vines and weeds making it hard to see inside them, but there were one house that looked as if it was kept neat even though abandoned.  I snuck in the front yard, and crawled through a broken window.  The house smelled of freshly cut daises, the smell was intoxicating.  As I took in the smell the wooden floorboards shook and twisted around me, squeezing tight around my body.  I looked into the darkness and saw a woman glaring at me.  She said to me “what are you doing in my home you stupid kid”. “I am here to learn alchemy.  I heard that you were a great alchemist, and I was wondering if you would teach me alchemy”.  She grinned and said back “I still am a great alchemist, and why should I help a stupid kid like you”.  “I have to learn alchemy to kill Barry the Butcher the man that cut my arms off, and left me to die in the street”.           “That is pretty sad, but still I don’t teach so I guess you will just half to find someone else”.           “Please my parents are dead I have no where else to go, and I would be a very good student”.                   “Fine I will teach you, we start tomorrow so be ready”.

 

            I didn’t know how hard learning alchemy would be until I met Madam Gia.  I studied and worked every single day for ten years, making sure I knew every single detail of every transmutation.  I knew that I could transmute my arms into some kind of weapon but I really didn’t think of how to do it until I carved transmutation circles into the palms of my hands.  I practiced turning them into different types of blades, but none felt right until I made into katana like blades that came out of my forearms. 

 

            I also learned how to transmute the metal on my shoulder blades into angel wings.  I did this by putting transmutation circles on them, and focusing on the design while I made the transformation.  I learned much from Madam Gia, but even she was surprised the first time she saw me make my wings appear.  She was astounded by the power that had obtained through her teachings.  I did expect to use my newly found skills on anyone, but Barry the butcher until I met Rose and Carmella.  

 

            I met them one night when I heard something coming from the front of the house, and I jumped out of bed quickly to see what made the noise.  I changed one of my arms into a blade, and stepped into the living room to see two girls standing there in the darkness.  I rushed them, but both of them didn’t move.  One of the girls had what looked like a silver rose in her hand, and the other had a bronze belt.  The one with the rose turned it into a whip, and started to attack me.  The whip cut into my back making me wince in pain.  The other girl made her belt into a giant scythe that gleamed in the moon light.  I thought to myself “I am overwhelmed what am I going to do”.  Just then Madam Gia came in with a candle laughing. The two girls stopped attacking, and also started to laugh.

 

            Madam Gia said “Michael these two are very talented alchemists.  There names are Rose and Carmella, and they are the daughters of two of top ranking state alchemists”.  “Madam they just tried to kill me”.  Rose cut in and said “Madam Gia wanted us to test your skills and also we want you to help us”.  I was shocked, but also kind of intrigued.  I asked what they needed my help with.  Carmella answered saying “We are looking for a woman named Tameka Bonier.  She was a high ranking state alchemist that went rogue and killed her commanding officer Roy Mustang.  Tameka did this after she found out that she could not kill the rogue alchemist that killed her parents, and blew off her arms.  She is a very dangerous woman her code name was the slicer demon alchemist and she has connections with the person that you made you the way you are”.  I agreed to join the two on their mission.  The two of them where both state alchemists as well, and they made me an unofficial state alchemist for the time being. 

 

            That was a year ago, since then I have become an actual state alchemist under the code name the angel alchemist.  Rose and Carmella both knew our target and once were friends with her.  They were in the same unit as Tameka, and they were under her command until the day she killed Mustang.  Tameka was French so not many people thought she would turn out to be such a violent person. I guess that is what happens when you see your parents mutilated and killed right in front of you.  I had no interest in Tameka only in her knowledge of Barry.

 

             Two nights ago Rose was looking for someone that might have seen Tameka, at first she had no luck, but finally a young girl named Elisabeth said that she saw someone that looked like Tameka talking to a man in a suit of armor.  Rose asked where she had seen the two, and Elisabeth said on the north side of central in front of an old abandoned store.  As soon as she heard this Rose rushed back to wear we were staying to tell Carmella and I of what she had just found out. 

 

She burst through the door of the hotel room in which we were staying, saying that she knew wear Tameka was.  I asked her “how did find out she was”.  She replied “a little girl said that she saw someone that looked like her talking to a suit of armor”.  Carmella cut in saying “we have been searching the entire country for a year, and you think she is here in central.  Besides how can trust the word of a little brat”.              “I don’t but it is the only lead we have right now so it would just be better to check it out then to just sit here”.  We decided that we would check it out.  

 

            We planned a strategy to investigate the store.  We went to the store at nine at night to make sure no civilians would be hurt, if a battle were to start.  I busted down the door of the old worn down store, and peered inside.  A cleaver flew at me from the darkness, but I quickly blocked it with my arm.  Then I started to hear the cackling I heard so many years ago

           

            It was Barry, I could tell the horrid laughter echoing from the darkness.  I walked into the moonlight shining through the broken roof, and Barry said “I thought I killed you when I chopped off your arms you little brat”.     “I survived you son of b***h, and now you are going to tell me where Tameka is then you are going to die”.  I told Carmella and rose not to do anything; I wanted to do this on my own.  I then transmuted my arms into blades then started to walk forward

 

            Barry came storming at me laughing the entire way.  He swung wildly at me with both of his cleavers, while I blocked the blows each time.  I didn’t really know how I was going to kill him because he was just suit of armor with a soul attached to it.  I yelled at him “just die you f*****g psychopath”  “that’s just it I can’t I am immortal in this armor”.  I thought back to my studies, there had to be a transmutation circle somewhere on the armor.  I cut off one of his metallic arms then the other. I couldn’t stop slicing away: it was like I was controlled by some force.  Rose and Carmella finally grabbed my arms, and told me to stop because we need to question him, but there wasn’t much left to question

 

            All that was left was the helmet because that was where the transmutation circle was.  I drilled him with questions about Tameka and her whereabouts.  He didn’t talk until I started to scratch at the transmutation circle. That made him tell us everything.  Barry told us that Tameka had went to meet someone in west central he said that he didn’t know who she was going to meet all he knew was that she was in west central.  I was about to finish him off when foot soldiers raided the place stopping me.  Carmella said “we can’t have you kill one of our prized experiments Michael.  Barry is too important to lose; he was an experiment on putting the human soul into an inanimate object like a suit of armor”.

 

            I stopped and looked up at my two partners and said “well we know where Tameka is let’s go get her”.  The three of us split up I took to the skies and my partners stayed on the ground.  I thought to myself while I was in the air “what else are those two not telling me I need to find out more than what I know”.  I landed near Rose and Carmella, the flapping of my metal wings startled them when I landed.

 

Rose, Carmella, and I walked and searched for Tameka all around west central.  I turned to Rose and said “why didn’t you tell that Barry was one of the military’s experiments”.  She replied “I didn’t know myself Carmella is the one that is in that handles those kinds of things not me.  I was just as surprised as you when the soldiers came barreling in”.  I was surprised that Rose didn’t know anything about Barry.  I asked Carmella about it, but she said that the information was only for people of high rank like her.  I was still wondering about Barry and the experiment that made him a suit of armor when we found Tameka    

 

            She was standing over a freshly decapitated body still oozing blood.  We walked over to her, and she said “I finally did it I killed him”.  I asked who she had killed.  She replied “I killed the alchemist that killed my parents and blew off my arms.  He deserved this”.           “He did, but what you did to get here makes you exactly like him.  You killed an innocent man and you yourself became a rogue alchemist”.  Just then Carmella stabbed Rose in the back and walked over to Tameka.  I rushed to Rose’s side to help her.  Rose was coughing up blood, and saying that she didn’t know it could at night.  She died in my arms.  I stood up with tears in my eyes

 

            I screamed with tears in my eyes “Carmella why, why did you kill Rose”.  She said back “Tameka and I are old friends we learned alchemy together, we are practically sisters.  I only joined this squad to keep the military from finding her, but since that didn’t work I guess I had to kill rose and now you”.  Carmella changed her belt into a scythe and walked towards me.  She looked at me and said “any last words before I send you to where rose now resides”.          “Yeah just three, go to hell”.

 

            Right before she swung down I changed my arm into a blade and stabbed her in the stomach.  I felt her life leave her body as I dug the blade deeper and deeper into her chest.  Carmella hit the ground moaning in agony repeating the words “kill him”.  I laid her body next to rose’s and said “I hope that god shows you pity for you did”.   Tameka seeing this went mad with rage.  She screamed “you will pay for this you, you b*****d”.  I quickly found out why her codename was the slicer demon alchemist.  She pulled off her coat to reveal two automail arms she slammed them together making one a claw and the other a giant blade. 

 

            Tameka and I ran at one another screaming. It was now dawn and the sounds of our battle could be heard throughout the city.  Tameka cut my chest with her claw and I started to bleed immensely.  I decided there was only one option to end this.  I ran at her swinging my blades insanely.  Our blades clashed making sparks fly into the air. We each were making blows on one another then I finally stabbed her in the gut with both of my blades.  She did not die but made the blades go deeper in her body by pulling herself towards me 

 

            She looked at me with a demonic look on her face. When I pulled the blades out, she fell to the ground.  She looked up at me and said “we aren’t so different we both had everything taken from us at young age, and we both are very talented”.         “You are right on that, but we both took our own paths that led us to this point”.            “Our paths are not that different both of our parents died, we both automail, and both searched for the man that took away our arms.  That to me sounds like the same path”.  

 

            She was right our paths were the same, but I didn’t drastic measures to get my revenge, and I didn’t even get my revenge.  Tameka passed out soon after that I she had died from her wounds; I laid down next to her still bleeding.  We both fought against someone that was like the other, and we both suffered the consequences.  I laid there becoming colder as deaths grip slowly tightened around me.  I closed my eyes; seeing the darkness of the underworld.  I embraced deaths sweet grip when suddenly I awoke. 

 

I was in the hospital being treated for my wounds.  Madam Gia had hear the chaos of the battle and came down to where it happened, but she was to late, seeing the still breathing she took me to the hospital .  I told about what Carmella had done and I told her about the battle.  Then I asked her “was there a girl besides me”.  She said “no there was only you, Rose, and Carmella”.  Shocked, I thought to myself its not over yet.