Helping Nina
Carmilla threw herself into her studies after her return with Nina, disappearing into her library and pulling out her seventh-year tomes for potions, transfiguration, and charms.
It was only a vague feeling in her gut, but she was confident that while there was no alchemical way to help Nina, there was a magic one.
Whether or not she had the books she needed was the main issue, it would be the Potter (rather, Kimblee she guessed) luck striking that she would only have references for what she was looking into.
Nina joined her in the library, the familiarity bringing her comfort, acting as a pillow for her sister to lean against.
Nina, over several weeks, acknowledged what had happened to her and reasonably began to hate her father for what he'd done while latching on to her new family, latching onto Carmilla and Dolcetto the most, often seen with either if they weren't in the bar.
But today, the Nest was greeted with the sight of Carmilla storming up from the basement and up to Greed's office, where he was having a discussion with Zolf.
Slamming open the door, startling the two men inside, she barked,
"I need you to get me a Red Stone,"
Greed stared at her in confusion, wondering why the hell she'd need a Red Stone before his eyes narrowed.
"You aren't attempting human transmutation." the sin growled, Zolf's eyes also narrowing at the thought.
Carmilla gave him a perplexed look before laughing,
"No, I'm not. I need the Stone to assist in using a spell." the witch explained, slamming the book in her hands down on the desk before him, opened to a page about the animagus transformation.
"I was looking into this because my inheritance test said I had an animagus form, and the text details that many animagi, on the first try, end up stuck in a malformed state. There's a spell to reverse the malformation; I thought that chimera and animagi share some traits. So I used the animagus revelation spell on Dolcetto and Nina. It didn't react in Dol's case, but in Nina's, it reacted. Her condition registers as a failed animagus transformation, if slightly off."
Carmilla told him, making the homunculus' eyes widen.
"You can fix her?"
Carmilla shook her head, "I can't undo the fact that she's a chimera, but with the reversal spell, I can give her back her human form. I'm not sure why she registers as an animagus while Dol doesn't, and I tested it against the other non-human chimeras too, none of them reacted to the revelation spell. Maybe because they've been in their states for more than a year, the book does say that the longer a person stays in the malformation, the more the body accepts the new state."
She theorized, losing Greed while Zolf made a hum of understanding, making the sin turn to the older Kimblee.
"Because Nina only became a chimera about what, six weeks ago? She's still fluid enough to reverse. Think of it like when Roa reveals his horns, what Carmilla will do with the spell will return her to her 'default' of a little girl, instead of a malformed canine."
"Ooohh," Greed was still lost, but Zolf made a bit more sense than his daughter at the moment.
"Okay, I'm still hella confused, but I'm going to say that by using the Red Stone, you'll be covering your bases?" he asked, making her nod.
"Yep, even if Nina reacts to the spell, her state is still a state caused by alchemy, so by using a Red Stone as the power for the spell, instead of my magic, I should be able to restore her. I could probably do it without the Stone, but I'd rather be safe than sorry in this case."
"But there is still the risk of the Gate viewing this as human transmutation, why not use my Philosopher's Stone?" Zolf inquired as he held up, said Stone.
"I could," Carmilla stated, "but that is the only Philosopher's Stone not under the control of Dwarf that we know of, and I would rather not risk using it up. Plus, it's your Stone, so I never considered it an option."
Zolf accepted the answer; there was no way to tell how much power his Stone had left after all.
"Red Stones are easier to get ahold of, all things considered, I have a few in my possession." Greed muttered, walking over to the wall safe, pulling out a marble-sized Red Stone, and tossing it to her.
"Why do you have Red Stones?" Carmilla questioned, eyebrow raised.
"Stole them from the lab the guys were in." the sin answered with a shrug, closing the safe and making a note to change the combination.
Carmilla nodded at the answer before turning on her heel, "By the way, I heard from Mason, the Curtis' runner, that the Elrics are in town." she told her boss/friend/protector whose face split into a devilish grin.
"I'll let them settle in for a few days to see if this plan works. If it doesn't?"
"There is a potion, but it's hard to brew, and I don't have the ingredients necessary, the one potion that Truth couldn't substatute the core ingredient. Well, the one so far could be more that I haven't read yet. If that turns out to be the case, then we'll just have to wait."
Carmilla shrugged, making Zolf look to her in confusion while Greed nodded.
"Wait for what?"
"When I came through the Gate, I made an agreement with Truth that I would return to fix a certain mess. Equivalent Exchange and all that. Plus, can you really say that you don't want the chance to rain hell on those bastards?" Carmilla questioned, while she and Zolf still weren't close, it'd take years for that, she knew that her father would love to have a 'chat' with Dumbledore and the Dursleys.
"What mess, and when do you go back?" Zolf demanded, barely containing the rush of wrath filling his veins, like hounds baying for blood.
"The wizard who murdered Lily and James, he did something that is comparably worse than human transmutation, he split his soul into several pieces in an attempt to become immortal. When he killed them, his magic forced him to create a seventh, me. Seven is a powerful number in magic, like eight is to alchemy because it can be seen as the symbol for infinity. There was also the fact that his soul and magic, because of the splitting, were extremely unstable."
Zolf paled at the information, split the soul?
"Yeah, I was just as horrified, anyway, the Goblins removed the soul shard from me before I came through the Gate. I agreed to go back and destroy the other shards; I have ten years before then, though. Did I ever mention the time difference between the worlds?"
"No, is it important?" Zolf asked only to grin at the mischievous look on her face.
"Yep, they'll find a way to force me back from what I've gathered, but for them, only two years will have passed since I left. So I'd be fourteen if Amestris was on Earth. But for every two months on Earth, a year passes in Amestris. I'll be twenty-four when they force me back, not fourteen."
Zolf began to chuckle as she spoke only for it to turn into a maniacal laugh by the end, oh he wished he could see their faces.
"If only I could see," he lamented such a shame.
"You can," Zolf's gaze snapped to hers, "Truth agreed that I'd be able to bring those closest with me. I knew from the beginning after we broke you out, you'd be coming with me. Now, I need to go see if the spell works."
Carmilla declared as she left the office, ignoring the terrified look Greed was shooting Kimblee as the man's face twisted into an evil grin.
Carmilla panted as she stood in her lab, smoke filling the room from the small explosion the Stone made when it was used up, kneeling as she tried to see where Nina had stood.
"N...Nina *cough* where...where are you?" She called out, hearing multiple sets of footsteps as she waved her hands around to clear the smoke.
Finally, she spotted the chimera, her eyes going wide as the smoke cleared.
Rushing forward, she pulled Nina into her arms as she began to cry.
Small arms wrapped around her middle as Nina, almost wholly human again, returned the hug.
"Sister, it worked," Nina smiled, her voice still echoed, but not nearly as much as before.
"Yes, it did, Nina," Carmilla smiled down at her, taking in Nina's new appearance as the doors were thrown open.
Nina's body was human again, her hair pooling on the floor around them, as she smiled. Carmilla took in that Nina's teeth were sharper than average, her eyes were now a pale blue instead of the ocean blue they'd been before, and her hands were tipped in black claw-like nails, but she was human again.
Looking to the others, Nina waved to them, calling out to Dolcetto.
"Dol, Sister did it, I'm human again," the youngest chimera said as Dolcetto yipped, rushing over and pulling her into his arms.
Carmilla smiled as the chimera passed Nina around, each of them hugging the little girl before her vision went hazy, falling backward as she heard everyone call out to her, sounding like they were in a tunnel.
Carmilla blinked, finding herself in a familiar white void, her gate behind her now much more detailed, looking like a phoenix in flight, and Truth looking at her with a frown.
"Hello Little Witch, I didn't expect to see you so soon."
The guardian greeted as they sat with their left arm resting on their right knee.
"Truth, did I do something?" Carmilla questioned, she knew that she was treading on thin ice with what she did for Nina.
"Not quite," Truth began, "though you came close. I brought you here to warn you,"
"To never do this again?"
"Manipulating souls is not for the hands of humans, Little Witch, I could let it pass this time, only because of the Stone."
"But I didn't manipul...I see I combined my magic and alchemy in order to power the spell," Carmilla realized, by doing what she'd done, she'd performed a mock human transmutation.
"Forgive me Truth, I was foolish to not see all the angles."
"Indeed you were, the souls in the Red Stone pled for you to be forgiven. You are lucky that it was not a true transmutation or you would have had to pay the price. Do not do it again, Carmilla Kimblee. Or else."
Truth warned her, their sightless face glaring at her as they pointed to the Gate behind her that had opened to reveal a giant eye.
"The Gate still wishes to punish you, but it will let you pass, this time. But you must do something for it instead."
Truth explained causing her to nod.
"What is it?"
"You must ensure that Dwarf in the Flask dies. By whatever means necessary. Are we understood?"
Carmilla stared at the entity for a moment, feeling the weight of the order, before she answered, "Understood if it comes down to it, I'll use the killing curse as many times as it takes."
She swore making Truth grin.
"It probably won't come to that, but I am glad to see you understand your folly. I do not want to see you again until the day you return to Earth."
Carmilla opened her eyes to see Greed, staring down at her with worried eyes.
"You okay kid?"
"Yeah, sorry, I just used too much magic." Carmilla lied, having a feeling that Truth didn't want them to know. Or maybe it was her, who didn't want that.
Greed eyed her for a moment, having a feeling she was lying, but deciding to let it lie.
"I want you on bed rest for the next two days, no magic, no alchemy. Understood?"
"I understand, the others?"
"They're fine, Nina's worried, but you just rest. I'll tell them."
"Thank you, Greed, what about the Elrics."
"Let me worry about them, okay?"
Carmilla nodded, pulling the sheets of her bed over her, having noticed she was in her room.
"Oh," Greed said as he stopped by the door, "next time you want to lie to me, do it better. You saw Truth, I'm guessing, so I'm not going to pry. But next time, be more careful."
He ordered as he left, making her frown.
"He can read me too well."