Sister of the Fullmetal Alchemist *FMA Brotherhood Fanfic* {Completed!}

Chapter 5

A while later, Char sat on her bed while Al sat across from her, listening as Ed finished his conversation with his mechanic, Winry Rockbell. He finally put the phone down and came back into the room, sitting down on his bed and sighing. "Well, Winry'll be here by tomorrow. She's bringing a new arm *pfft*. Until then, we cant do much else." Char lowered her head again.

"Sorry..this is because I wasnt careful enough," she murmured. Ed shook his head.

"It's not your fault. You've never met Scar before, but me and Al have. We just didnt think you'd bump into each other.." He trailed off, then sighed. "Come on, let's get to sleep. Winry's gonna bite my head off tomorrow," he muttered, curling up underneath his covers.

Next morning, Char decided to go back to the library. Now that she'd read so many books, she wanted to read more. This time Denny came with her and sat at the table as Char went back and forth between bookshelves, working her way from one end of a bookshelf to the other before starting on the next one. At some point Denny fell asleep, snoring slightly, so Char moved to a different table to continue reading. By the time her stomach rumbled to inform her for lunch, she had read seven bookcases worth of books. Estimating the size of the books and bookshelves, she assumed that was somewhere around 700 books.

Char walked back into the room, Denny stumbling in behind her, still yawning. "Is it lunch time?" she asked, sitting down on the bed opposite Al. He nodded.

"Brother went to go get some food for when you came back. He'll be here in a moment."

"Excellent. I'm starving!" she giggled, leaning back against the wall. A few minutes later the door opened and Ed walked in carrying a large plate of food. He looked up and grinned when he saw Char.

"Good, you're back. I was thinking I'd have to eat it all by myself!" he laughed. Char stuck her tongue out at him.

"If you'd done that, you'd have got fat," she said with a giggle. Ed glanced at her and then shook his head.

"Honestly, you're so weird," he said.

"I'm weird? Maybe you should listen to yourself one day," she retorted. Ed shrugged.

"Anyway, yesterday me and Al met this girl called Sheska. She's apparently got a photographic memory and promised to write down all the notes we're looking for. She'll be finished soon, hopefully, so me and Al will be reading through those. What will you do?" he asked Char. She considered.

"Reading," she replied eventually.

"Reading?" Al and Ed asked together.

"Yes. Reading."

A few hours later, Ed and Al poured over several notes, referring from book to book. They were working hard, Char knew, and she'd help them if she understood any of them. Instead she just sat quietly in a corner, working through the five giant bookcases next to her. The more she read, the more she came to understand the concept of Alchemy. Her mind shot back to when she had been playing in the orphanage. Her friend had broken one of his toys, so she'd bent down and automatically pressed her hands together before touching it, and then suddenly it was repaired. Was that Alchemy? she wondered, scanning through a few more books.

After reading 58 more books and not finding anything refrencing to the thing she had done, curiousity got the better of her. "Ed?" she asked.

"Mmm?" he replied.

"Do you know what Alchemy is?"

"Of course. The most basic but firm rule of Alchemy is that to gain something, something of equal value must be given up. The reason people draw transmutation circles is so that the circle of power which allows us to use Alchemy can be accessed, letting us draw on the power to change and craft this energy to shape it however we want."