New Sister
Important, please read, in chapter 6, Greed says that it's been ten years since he acquired his chimera, but the war in Ishval was from 1901 when Envy shot the child to 1908 when Bradley ordered the State Alchemists to Ishval, so I have a question, should I go back and fix this or just have you all keep in mind that from this point on, it's only been five years. Greed, in this, gets the gang in 1906 as I'm also changing that the State Alchemists were brought in at that point, thus in 1906, the State Alchemist go to war, and it lasts another two years until 1908.
"This" is talking
'This' is thinking
"this" is parseltongue
"this" is Truth
"this" is Nina
Its been two months since Zolf came to live in the Devil's Nest, and Carmilla was surprisingly happy with the development.
Things between her and Zolf were still rocky, yes, but there wasn't the awkwardness she'd expected there to be.
Instead, there was a comfortable distance between them, as they were still working out how much importance the other held, while still growing close enough that she didn't tense when he came within five feet of her.
This was surprising to the other residents of the bar, considering that Carmilla practically spits fire when humans got too close to her usually, her inherent distrust of humans as a whole obvious in her demeanor.
And while they did attempt to keep Carmilla away from the less legal side of things, Carmilla developed a surprising habit; she would abuse the hell out of the Notice-Me-Not spell and her portkey to Central to sneak into Central Command's files.
Why did she do this? Because she wanted to ensure that the military wasn't employing any Alchemists devoted to chimera research, the horror stories that were told by her family about the experiments performed on them pissing her off more than you could imagine.
She'd also learned that the more inhuman chimera, those who didn't make it out of the lab, complained of constant pain that made many of them choose to starve to death or figure out a way to kill themselves for the pain to end.
Her family stated that they'd grown accustomed to the pain and that it no longer bothered them, as they all had mostly human forms, it was only those whose bodies were twisted that felt the pain to that degree.
In Carmilla's mind, however, if some of the chimera her family had known killed themselves, then how much pain were the pure animal chimera in? Torn between the instincts of two or more creatures.
It was this that lead to her current predicament; she wasn't a humanitarian; she didn't care if people lived or died so long as she and her own survived. But chimera weren't human, and she did value the lives of animals.
Human chimera, in Carmilla's mind, were non-humans, like Goblins, and thus didn't bother her.
Sighing as she left her lab, she sought out Zolf, who was in her library, where she usually found him.
He was sitting in the lotus position with a book she noticed was her second year Transfiguration book in his lap, leaning against a tower of books and also surrounded in a circle of book towers.
There was also a notebook next to him that he was writing in with a raised brow.
"Find something interesting?" she questioned, knowing that he was aware of her arrival.
"Yes, I'm interested how one can turn the inanimate animate, I can understand a match to a needle somewhat, but a rat to a goblet?" he muttered, both fascinated and disturbed at the idea.
"Yeah, that bugged me too, even before I started learning alchemy, mostly because of the fact one of my year mates did an incomplete transfiguration, and his goblet was squeaking, furry, and had a tail." Carmilla shuddered, that had been wrong on so many levels.
Zolf looked up at her in disbelief only to find her numbly shaking her head.
"Why do they think its a good idea to do this?" He pondered, not expecting an answer from her, she looked just as lost.
"No idea, anything else you'd like to ask?"
"No, what did you need?" Zolf asked as she sat down near him, her back against the nearby wall.
"You know that I sneak into Central Command," she began making him nod, he actually found her little adventures amusing after she'd explained how the Notice-Me-Not spell worked combined with her stealthy behavior, the likelihood of her being caught was slim, and she was careful to cover her tracks.
"I do, you go into the archives, don't you?" Solf answered, wondering where she was going with this.
"I found out there is a State Alchemist who specializes in chimera research."
Zolf's eyes narrowed, knowing where she was going with this.
"You're planning to go and 'visit' them, aren't you?"
Carmilla gave a sharp nod causing him to sigh.
"Why come to me and not to Greed or the others."
"Because you won't try to stop me or come along." She said bluntly, making him chuckle, the protectiveness they'd showed when he first arrived was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to his daughter.
While Carmilla still had reservations about him, he knew without a doubt she was his daughter. He'd known it the moment he saw the letter but was confident of the fact the moment he met her. The inheritance test she'd brought with her from the other side only provided the proof for others.
Idly he wondered what Flame would have thought if he knew Zolf was a father, probably have a heart attack.
There was no love lost between him and the Flame Alchemist; the man was a naive idealist, Zolf was a realist.
"That is true, so you wish for me to give you advice on what, exactly?" Zolf asked her, marking his place in the book before closing it.
"More or less, it's really just about what I should if I find a human chimera, and I need someone to tell Greed once I'm gone. Who knows, maybe I'll run into Fullmetal again. Heard he'd raised quite the ruckus in Liore."
Carmilla shrugged, making him sigh.
"You're also conflicted about what to do about this Alchemist. If you kill him, you'll draw attention to yourself." the Crimson Alchemist warned, folding his arms across his chest.
It wasn't that he doubted her abilities, he watched Carmilla spar with the chimera, and she'd proved just how versatile she was with her water alchemy.
Once she gains even the slightest mastery in his explosive alchemy, she'll be a force of nature, and that's before she brings her magic into the game.
"I know, I want nothing more than to rip the son of a bitch limb from limb, they call him the Sewing Life Alchemist, Shou Tucker. I'm certain he's made a human chimera, as he earned his certification for making a talking chimera, the thing is," she said, pulling papers out of a hip pouch she'd enchanted to resemble a bottomless bag, unfolding the documents and reading her notes on Tucker's files, "the chimera he made said only one thing, "I want to die," and starved itself to death. Just the day before he got his certification, his wife left him and their daughter, Nina, two years ago."
Zolf quickly put the pieces together with a grimace, "He used his wife for the material. At least I just kill people." he hissed as he took the notes from her.
"Since the war ended, State Alchemists go through an assessment every two years, according to Tucker's file, he got his certification in May of 1912, his assessment is in a few days. If he was willing to turn his wife into a chimera, I would worry for the daughter."
Carmilla explained, causing rage to boil within the man.
"Go, I'll cover the others. If you're lucky, he'll grab a random stranger off the streets, but why risk it when he can just use the kid." Zolf told her, he may not have morals in the ordinary sense, but he does have them, somewhat.
Carmilla nodded at the command, rising to her feet and walking out the door with purpose-filled steps.
Arriving in Central with a soft pop from the portkey, she walked out of the alley and joined the flow of traffic, raising the hood of her jacket to block the sun from blinding, heading for the train station.
'If I recall, Tucker is in East City,' she thought as she approached the ticket booth, greeting the teller with a warm smile, "Hello Sir, I need a ticket for East City, soonest available time please,"
"Of course, the soonest it the 1 o'clock train and will be 50 cens, please," the teller informed her, taking the money she held out.
"Thank you," she muttered, pulling her pocket watch out, and checking the time.
"It's a thirty-minute wait; I'll grab a snack from one of the vendors in the station. I wish I had a portkey to East City, would be a lot easier," she muttered as she made her way to the platform, somewhat grateful that she had experience on long train rides thanks to the Hogwarts Express.
Reaching the platform, she quickly found a vendor selling croquettes and bought a few, out of everything she'd tried they were her favorite.
"What's a young lady like you traveling alone for?" a male voice sounded making her look to the speaker, seeing a man with spikey black hair and green eyes, one strand of hair falling into his face, he had stubble along his chin and was wearing the Amestrian Military uniform, the stars on his shoulder telling her he was a Colonel in rank.
"Visiting family," she lied, schooling her face to hide her unease, not only was a human talking to her, but they were male and military.
"All alone? Sorry, I'm a father, I've got a daughter myself, and isn't she adorable!" the man exclaimed, pulling a picture of a little girl out of his breast pocket, shoving it in her face.
Carmilla blinked, trying to bring the picture into focus as she realized it was a little girl in a pink sundress with blond pigtails and green eyes just like the man's.
"Y...yes, yes she is sir, how old is she?" Carmilla asked awkwardly, unsure how to handle the man.
"She's three, her name's Elicia, and she's the sweetest angel in the world! Her mother is too!" the Colonel said, pulling Carmilla to sit down beside him on a bench as he went on about his family.
"Um...sir, could you let go," Carmilla asked, trying to resist the urge to rip her arm away from his grip.
Seemingly realizing how uncomfortable she was the man let go, holding his hands up beside his head.
"Sorry, my name's Maes Hughes, what's your name ma'am?"
"Carmilla, you're a Colonel, right?" Carmilla asked, pointing to the stars on his shoulders.
"That's right; you have family in the military?" Hughes asked the teen, who nodded as she pulled out one of her croquettes.
"Former, my father was in Ishval. He doesn't like talking about it though," she sighs, looking sadly down at her snack, mentally praising her acting skill since it seemed that the man was falling for it.
"I can imagine, a lot of good men lost their lives in that hell," Hughes agreed as he took in her appearance.
She was tiny, which was why he approached her at first, only to realize that she was a teenager from her voice.
"Indeed," Carmilla grunted, wishing the man would leave her alone and trying to subtly ward the man off.
"Are you heading to East City? I'm heading there myself, and it can get lonely traveling alone." Hughes offered, aware of the fact she didn't really want to talk, but he was concerned, he certainly would allow Elicia to travel alone.
That, and the girl wasn't quite as smooth as she thought, oh, her dislike of interaction was real, but her story was a lie.
She was a good lier, he'd give her that, but he worked intelligence, it took a lot to lie to him successfully.
"Um...there's no need to go out of your way, Sir, I am heading to East City as you thought, but there isn't a need to look out for me. I'm sure that you have work to do," Carmilla muttered, avoiding looking to the man who she couldn't help but noticed looked similar to James Potter from the one picture she'd seen of her step-father.
'I wonder if James was like this guy.' she wondered, what little she'd heard about the man told her that he was a joyful, fun-loving man.
"It's no trouble, I'm sure that it'd put your father at ease to know that you got there safely," Hughes said, smiling warmly at her.
Realizing that he wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer, Carmilla sighed and nodded her head.
"Very well, though father ensured I could protect myself, basic hand-to-hand," Carmilla warned, pulling out another croquette.
Hughes stared at the snack, not familiar with it.
"What's that?" he questioned, pointing to it and making her smile for the first time.
"It's a croquette, kinda like a deep-fried potato but it's filled with meat or fish, these were made with beef," Carmilla said, offering one to the man who took it.
"I like them more than other foods, though, I'm not too fond of the fish-filled ones. You make them by mashing potatoes and mixing in milk, salt, pepper, chopped onion, beaten egg yolks, then shape the potatoes into balls, dip them in beaten eggs, roll them in breadcrumbs, and fry them in shallow oil until they're golden brown on all sides (this is a recipe I looked up)"
She explained as Hughes took a bite, puffing air at the heat to cool his mouth down, before swallowing.
"That's good, I see why you like them, I'll have to tell my wife," he said, scarfing down the rest.
"Yep, you must love them, you haven't stopped talking about them," Carmilla mumbled, a faraway look in her eyes.
Hughes looked down sharply at her words, concerned at the look in her eyes, it reminded him of Ishval veterans.
"You okay?"
"Oh, yes," she huffed, giving him a smile, "I just have a lot on my mind is all. Don't worry about me," she assured him as the train rolled into the station.
Carmilla stepped onto the East City platform with a sigh of relief, planning to lose Hughes in the crowd.
Luckily, that proved almost too easy, since Hughes had to get his luggage, the joys of magic.
Taking to the alleys, she smirked as she saw the Colonel walk past looking concerned, clearly looking for her.
'Sorry, Colonel, but I can't have you getting in my way. Now, it's time to find Tucker.' she cackled within the safety of her mind, casting the Notice-Me-Not (NMN) spell and making her way to Eastern Command.
Slipping in passed the guards was easy since they couldn't detect her presence with the spell, and made her way to archives.
Sneaking into the archive room, she started searching for Tucker's personnel files.
"Bingo," she whispered as she found what she was searching for only to freeze as the door opened to reveal a member of the staff. Quickly gazing at the address, she slipped the file back in place and backed herself into the wall, allowing the woman to pass by as she slipped out the open door.
'That was a bit too close,' she scolded herself, now hyperaware of everyone in the building.
As she was leaving, she spotted a familiar blond-haired teen and an armor-wearing man with a black-haired man wearing a Colonel's uniform and a blond woman wearing Lieutenant's uniform.
'So, Fullmetal's here too, interesting. Wonder who the Colonel is.' she wondered as she walked past them.
Reaching the address assigned to Tucker, she gritted her teeth at the large house the man was living in, spotting a large dog in the yard, did the military really have the funds to waste it like this.
She was about to enter the property when a car pulled up in front, Fullmetal, his brother, and the Colonel got out.
'Don't tell me he's looking into chimera!'
This was not part of the plan, looks like she'd need to wait until younger State Alchemist was gone, and that still didn't help with the girl.
Two days, that's how long it took Carmilla to get her opening, and she took it as she felt the signs of alchemy in the air.
'Oh shit, don't let me be too late!' she panicked, rushing into the house and down the stairs where Tucker's lab likely was.
Slamming open the door Carmilla froze at the sight before her, Fullmetal pinning Tucker to the wall as his brother knelt before a chimera with long brown hair asking if they could play.
"No, I'm too late..." she whimpered, looking to the chimera she knew was Tucker's daughter mixed with their dog.
"Who are you?" the armor-wearing boy questioned, turning to her and preparing to fight.
Fullmetal turned his head to her, keeping Tucker firmly pinned to the wall with his automail arm, his eyes widening in recognition.
"It's you, from when the Freezer was running around central...what are you doing here," he asked, nearly choking Tucker.
"I...look, let me take the girl, we both know she can't be turned back to normal like that, not after being turned into a chimera. If the military gets ahold of her, the only thing that awaits her is a cell in a lab, she'll never be considered human again. I know other chimeras, human chimeras, that escaped from a lab years ago and I can get her to them. Do whatever you want with that asshole, I'd put together the pieces the military either ignored or missed."
Carmilla said, ignoring their questions as she focused her gaze on the child chimera.
'Oh Truth, how much pain is she in? Her form is mangled,' she observed, the chimera's front paws looked somewhat like hands, but the girl's form was mostly that of the dog.
Fullmetal stared at her for a moment before asking, "You'll make sure she's safe?"
Carmilla locked eyes with him, noting that unlike her or Zolf, his eyes were actually gold in color, and nodded sharply.
"You have my word, I swear by Truth," she started, watching his eyes widen, "that she'll come to no harm from me or mine. We hate the military, I just need help sneaking her past the soldiers, it'd be best if we fake her death,"
Carmilla looked around the lab, looking at all the chimera in cages, "use one of the other chimeras, put it out of its misery, so that they have no reason to think she's still alive."
Fullmetal turned to her, having knocked Tucker out by choking him, and nodded.
"I can handle that, but I want your name and how you know other chimeras."
"It's Carmilla, and they took me in after I ran into them. They were once human just like her," Carmilla explained as she stood in front of the girl.
"Hello, my name is Carmilla, I want to take you somewhere safe, is that okay?" she addressed the child, smiling warmly at her.
"Safe? Go Safe? My name is Nina," the chimera said, her speech broken and holding an echo to it.
"Yes, Nina, safe, where you don't have to be in pain," Carmilla said, gently stroking Nina's hair.
"Pain stop? Nina would like that,"
"Pain, what pain Nina?" the armor-wearing boy asked, concerned.
"Chimeras that are made from pure animals always cry out because they are in pain, torn between the instincts of whatever animals they are made from. Human chimeras like Nina and my friends are able to express this pain. I was looking into the military because of them, I wanted to make sure that no one was looking into chimera research. I came across Tucker."
Normally Carmilla would never tell a soul about her family, but she needed the bothers to trust her, time wasn't on their sides.
"Al, lead Carmilla and Nina out the back, I'll handle the chimera," Fullmetal said after a few minutes, he didn't know why, but he trusted the girl before him, perhaps it was the look in her eyes, a look he saw in the mirror every day.
"Brother,"
"She's right Al, if the military learned that Nina was still alive, they'd kill her or worse. Chimera can't be DNA tested, so they'll never know the switch. Tucker won't be trusted, not after I call Mustang."
Fullmetal explained to his brother who nodded, his armor sounding almost hollow to Carmilla's ears.
"This way lets go." Al requested, Carmilla and Nina following after.
"Can you really help her?" Al asked as they walked up the stairs, Carmilla helping Nina as the child's joints caused her pain.
"Yes, I wasn't lying, I know a bit about herbal medicine, I help my friends with the pain they feel. Nina will be safe," Carmilla swore as they reached the back yard.
"Is there any way we can contact you?" Al asked he wanted to check in on Nina.
Carmilla shook her head sadly, giving a small lie, "We move almost constantly, paranoia. Maybe we'll come across each other again,"
"Take care then, Nina," Al called out, kneeling in front of Nina, "stay safe for us okay? Brother and I would be sad if you got hurt,"
"Okay Brother Al, Nina be good, don't hurt Daddy?" Nina asked, breaking Carmilla's heart.
'Even after this, she still loves that monster?' Carmilla wondered, stomping down the rage in her heart, knowing that Nina's nose would give away her anger.
"I'll see what I can do Nina, but he hurt you and your mother badly, and he needs to answer for that," Al said to the little girl.
"Okay, we go now?" Nina turned her muzzle to Carmilla who nodded, leading her into the alleys after casting the NMN spell on her once out of Al's sight.
After moving several blocks away Carmilla turned to Nina,
"Hey Nina, wanna see a magic trick?" she questioned, the chimera's tail wagging at her words.
"Magic? Magic real?"
"Yep, I'm a witch, so I can cast magic either with my wand or without it at times. Though I have to be really good with a spell for that," Carmilla smiled as she pulled out a piece of rope, casting the enchantment to turn the rope into a portkey to the Devil's Nest.
"Can you bite into this Nina, this isn't the most comfortable way to travel, and it might hurt a bit, but it's the only way for me to get you back to my friends," she told Nina who nodded, biting into the rope.
Greed watched Dolcetto pace the length of the bar in his worry beside Zolf who was smirking.
Three days, that's how long this little adventure of their witch was taking so far, and the dog chimera was beginning to panic.
Zolf had just dropped the bomb that Carmilla had left for Central the day after she left so that they couldn't follow after them.
Greed himself was worry about his possession/daughter, even knowing how well she could handle herself, but not to the extent that Dolcetto was; the dog in the man disliking that the pack's pup was out of his sight.
Hearing a crack in the center of the room Greed grinned, knowing Carmilla was home, but that grin fell the moment he saw what was with her.
"Martel, go get me a pain reliever, one for a chimera. I was too late to stop that SOB from making his own daughter into a chimera. Everyone, this is our newest family member, Nina Tucker." Carmilla said tensely, her eyes on Nina who was whimpering.
Dolcetto rushed over, scenting his fellow dog, and growled at Nina's twisted body and her whimpers of discomfort.
"Pup, next time, take one of us with you," he demanded softly, kneeling on the other side of Nina who turned her muzzle to him.
"I know, but I didn't expect this, Nina, this is Dolcetto, he's a dog too." Carmilla introduced, pointing to him.
Nina looked up at him, giving him a simultaneously terrifying yet sweet smile, "Dolcetto, that person Dolcetto, he dog too?"
"Yep," Dolcetto choked, his eyes tearing up as he ran his fingers through her mane-like hair, "I'm a dog too kid. Save for Milla, Greed, and Zolf, we're all chimera here."
Carmilla knew he was fighting the urge to cry, looking around to see that everyone was upset while Martel walked over with the potion, one of Dolcetto's as she'd heard what Nina was mixed with.
Taking the potion from her Carmilla turned to Nina and said, "Nina, I need you to tilt your head back as far as you can, this will take the pain away alright?"
Nina sniffed the bottle, her muzzle wrinkling making Dolcetto chuckle, "It tastes worse than it smells, but it works really good kid."
Nina nodded at that, sitting up and raising her head as far as possible, opening her jaw and allowing Carmilla to pour a small dose of the potion in her mouth.
"Good girl Nina, I need to talk to Greed okay, I'm sure that Dol and Bido will play with you if you ask," Carmilla told her, making the chimera nod.
"Okay, play with me?" Nina asked, looked to Dol who nodded, "Come on, we can also find you a room."
Once the pair left the main bar Greed stood, heading for the office.
"Tell me everything, leave nothing out. I hope Tucker is dead," Greed demanded once they were in the office.
"Didn't have time, the military was on their way. Fullmetal was there, I had to tell him I knew human chimera for him to let her go. Didn't tell them details, just that I knew a group of chimera that escaped the military and that I was Nina's best bet," Carmilla told him as if debriefing a superior officer.
Greed looked cross for a moment before sighing, "I'm surprised that Fullmetal trusted you."
"Not sure why they did, but I did make a good argument,"
"What was that?"
"That if the military learned of Nina's existence, the only thing she could expect is the inside of a cage in a lab, never again to be human."
Greed smirked at that, can't argue with the truth.
"Aside from Fullmetal and his brother, did anyone see you?"
"On the train to East City, ran into a Colonel that wouldn't shut up about his family. But I lost him in the crowd."
"Good, go get Nina settled in," Greed ordered, planing on sending Dolcetto to pick up toys for the girl.
She belonged to him now, and he would see that his new possession was well cared for.