Disclaimer: I do not own anything within any of the FullMetal Alchemist works, unfortunately. So this is all for fun and will remain so throughout the duration.

A/N: Ok, this was born out of me trying to find some good FMA works with Roy Mustang as the main male lead instead of Ed or Al. There just aren't that many at all, so now we have this :) I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed thinking it up! Thanks!

Chapter 1

Anna hurriedly put down the box she had just picked up as she felt another sneeze come on. The last thing she wanted was to jostle the contents when she had no idea what they were yet, much less drop them. At least she had been given a cart to use, and it was handily right at the bottom of the ladder.

As soon as it was down, the sneeze refused to be held back longer, and she groaned at the feeling of the pressure behind her eyes. She looked around the dusty room again and reminded herself, "Don't complain. This is the freaking Smithsonian for crying out loud."

She plucked another tissue with a sigh and cleaned up before she tossed it into the half-full wastebasket on the bottom level of her cart. She had been thrilled when she first got the letter stating that the Smithsonian Institute was happy to have someone with her schooling and family history working as an intern. She had no idea what that really meant until she started. Reorganizing storerooms that hadn't been touched in decades was not what she was thinking of when she came here. She had hoped that it would lead her to connections so she could put her anthropology degree to work.

She sighed again as she opened the box to properly catalog the contents and figure out how to store them better. She supposed they all had to start somewhere, and while her mother's name had gotten her the interview, it was also the cause of some of her grief. Not everyone on the board was willing to look past the last few years of the woman's life before she had died.

Anna shoved that thought down and reminded herself not to take it out on the artifacts she was sorting. Even if this was only part-time and unpaid, she couldn't afford to lose the position. Just the name on a resume could work wonders. She was still young and knew where she wanted to go, so getting through the next few years of dusty cataloging and background work was something she was willing to put up with. Besides, some of the stuff was pretty cool.

She hadn't done more than pull out the first few items and written down their descriptions and state before she heard a voice behind her. "While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, as if someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door." The voice was accompanied by a light knock on the doorframe.

Anna turned around and pinned her visitor with a dry look. "Do you genuinely believe that makes you sound smart or witty?"

The man smirked at her. "I don't think about it much. I just wanted to see what our resident Raven was getting up to."

"Piss off, Andrew." Anna didn't say anything else as she turned around.

She nearly growled when the man crowded her into the small room and looked over her shoulder. His sarcasm practically dripped from his voice. "Oh, fascinating. More books and baubles that will never make their way back into the museum."

She ignored him as she gently set the next item down and spoke over her shoulder. "We work in a historical repository. Not everything is about what makes it into the public eye. It's about preserving history." She then looked over her shoulder with a glare. "Not that I think you would understand any of that. Tell me how you got a job here again?"

His smirk widened, but he took a step back. "Because unlike you, I have connections."

It took everything she had for Anna not to turn around and slap that smug look off his face. Instead, she took the last item out of the box and barely managed to set it down gently before she turned to him and shoved the decaying fiberboard box into Andrew's chest. "Here, make yourself useful. There are a couple more in the hall too. You can take them all down to the garbage."

He lifted a brow and almost let the box drop. "Perhaps your mother should have named you Katherine instead of Annabell."

For one second, Andrew thought he might have pushed too far. It hadn't been that long since the late Ms. Stephenson had kicked it. He took a step back as Anna's eyes flashed, and her jaw clenched. He hadn't realized he was holding his breath until she turned back around and spoke over her shoulder to him dismissively.

"Don't forget to hit the compactor button after you throw them in."

Andrew huffed at her back but bent to grab two more boxes. Anna could take care of the rest. Even though he was capitulating, he couldn't resist a parting comment as he walked off. "Don't peck anyone's eyes out while I'm gone. I'd hate to miss seeing that."

She looked back at him with enough fire that he wondered if she might take him up on the suggestion and peck at his eyes. He wasn't sure if it was better or worse when she shot him an evil smirk. "You might want to brush up a little before then. Especially since you can't even seem to get the right poem."

He looked her over with a practiced eye, from her black hair that was currently up in a messy bun to her steel grey raptor's eyes and then further down. She was definitely gorgeous as long as she wasn't speaking. He still managed a smirk. "Maybe, or it might just be that I like ravens, Raven."

She rolled her eyes and turned back around. It was impossible to get anywhere with that man. He just did not understand how any woman he wanted couldn't want him too. She was thankful to hear his footsteps disappearing finally.

Once he was gone, she turned back to the last item she had taken from the box and froze. There was an Ouroboros on the cover, but that was only part of what had caught her attention. There were also several other symbols she recognized, as well as a transcription around the edge that looked like it was written in Greek. She tried to gently brush away some of the dust so she could see for sure.

Once she brushed the front off, she raised a brow a the translation. "One is the Serpent which has its poison according to two compositions, and One is All and through it is All, and by it is All, and if you have not All, All is nothing."

She chuckled when she finally worked it out. She knew what she was looking at had to be a transcribed copy of an extremely old manuscript, but the quote had her thinking of younger days hanging out with her mother as they traveled. She sighed as she pushed those thoughts away and gently lifted the cover. Much to her surprise, the pages seemed to be firm, with no signs of the degradation common to papyrus or other organic-material-based papers from the 16th and 17th centuries or earlier. So this was a reprint. Even if it was a hand-copied and still quite old one.

She looked through the first few pages and saw most of it was in Greek, though some was in another language she did not recognize. Mostly the notes in the margins. She grinned down at the pages. This was one of the reasons why she wanted to study ancient cultures. What motivated them to create science as it was currently known? The mix of early chemistry and philosophy that was once known as alchemy. It was fascinating.

Her joy at the find was barely tarnished at the thought that her mother would have loved to have seen this. She had been an excellent archeologist but had turned more to philosophy before she died. Anna wasn't sure if it was because of her sickness, or something else, but it was the one thing that tarnished her mother's impeccable name. Still, it had not been enough for the board to turn her daughter away when she applied.

Anna made an impulsive decision. One that she knew she might regret later, but she gently wrapped the book up in tissue and placed it to the side before she pulled out one of the new carbon fiber boxes and assembled it to place the items she had just recataloged and sorted. She tried not to seem rushed as she finished the last of her work. She knew there were no cameras in the room, but there were plenty elsewhere, so she removed her daily planner from her bag and placed the book gently in its place. The planner went into her wastebasket.

Once that was done, she grabbed both the bag and the wastebasket. The cart and her supplies would remain for her to pick back up the next day. She hugged the can to her chest, and the backpack went over her shoulder as she locked the door behind her and made her way outside.

She was already wondering if she had made the right choice when every little sound made her jump. She chastised herself when she made it to the garbage bins and had not run into anyone. Still, she was not yet safe.

Anna emptied the bin and tried not to look as the planner was sent to the depths. She had liked that one, but it was replaceable. She then hit the button to compact the trash, a fact that she noticed had not been done in at least a few hours if the buildup was any indication. She grimaced at the reminder of her encounter with Andrew, but it helped to steady her nerves as she walked down the steps and to the employee parking lot. She was in her car and out of the gates before she managed to take in her first deep breath since she decided to become a thief.

She shook her head with a frown and spoke aloud to herself as she pulled into the parking garage where she lived. "Not a thief. I will take it back after I get a chance to look at it. Mom would kill me otherwise. I'm borrowing it only."

Her frown deepened as she realized she was thinking more about her mother than she usually allowed herself. It wouldn't do to break down now. Her mom was better off. At least she wasn't in pain anymore, and they had talked a lot. She knew her mother was satisfied with the life she had been given, even if it was cut short.

She growled as she got out of her car and shook those thoughts out as she made her way to the apartment above the restaurant she worked. It was one of four, and she was the only that lived in them besides the owners. It wasn't much, but she had taken the loft, so she had a little more space. Not a lot else, since all their money had gone to hospital bills, but it was enough. At least for now.

She laid her bag gently on the table in her tiny kitchen area before she pulled off her shoes and padded across to the lonely beanbag near the window. That made up the bulk of her furniture. The only other things she had were several bookshelves that she refused to sell that still lined an entire wall and her bed shoved into the corner farthest from the window and city lights. Not that it mattered much. These days she didn't spend much time in it. As she plopped down, she realized it was about to get even less.

She only gave herself a few minutes to admire the way the darkness allowed the city to look beautiful. Not that there weren't parts of it that were gorgeous during the day, but the darkness hid the gritty and made it easy to imagine the lights were captured stars, or fairy fire, or other such nonsense. Anna felt one side of her mouth perk up in a half-smile at her thoughts before she heaved herself back up and to her table. There was no time like the present to get started. It wasn't like she didn't work at both places nearly every day anyway. If she wanted time, it would be up to her to make it.

The next two weeks turned into a blur, but if anyone asked why she looked so tired, Anna would claim a bad bout of insomnia. It wasn't exactly untrue, but this time she had something other than her hectic thoughts keeping her awake.

The book she found was astonishing. She had expected some of it since she had been exposed to alchemical teachings in the past. It was kind of a hobby of her mother's that grew into a lot more the last few years of her life. But this, this was more.

So many of the books she had read previously were allegorical. They were never meant to teach a person step by step instructions on how to follow through with experimentation. When Alchemy first made it resurgence during the renaissance, it was almost seen more for its esoteric pursuits. The transmutation of the human soul on the path to enlightenment. That obviously didn't mean others didn't follow the exoteric as well, and this book was a prime example. She wasn't surprised to have found it where she did. It was important enough to be treasured but controversial enough to warrant a place on a back shelf.

The thought had her frowning as she read through a set of instructions again. She wasn't sure how she felt about the whole thing, other than fascinated to find a piece of history in such good shape. Still, the premise behind it was interesting, and to her shock, everything was written with the basic principles of scientific theory in mind, even though it didn't state them as such.

She grinned as she weighed the idea of trying it a few times. Obviously, there was no real philosopher's stone, and people couldn't turn lead into gold, but despite the infamy that alchemy was relegated too, it still seemed to hang around. Maybe there was something there? Her mother certainly believed so. She sighed at that random thought, but when she thought how her mother might feel if she could see her at that moment, she smiled.

That was all it took for her to clear her floor of any debris that she had left during her last two weeks of manic research. Once that was done, she planted herself on the floor with some old sidewalk chalk she had dug up. It was the best compromise since she was renting. At least she would be able to get it up easily.

She drew the circle out and set up the items inside that she would need. She was able to scrounge up a makeshift boiler and got the first step started. She would let it run overnight and bring back the rest of what she needed the next day. She grinned after she climbed into bed as she watched the small flame. It wasn't long before she was out.

Two more weeks passed, and Anna was beginning to doubt this endeavor had been anything other than a waste of her time and money. She had seen some spectacular things, but nothing that amounted to anything other than pretty chemical reactions. With a sigh, she decided this was her last try. She would take the book back the next day no matter what.

It wasn't like she hadn't copied parts of it down anyway. Even the strange words she couldn't read. Those had all gone in her notebook first. She had hoped that if she had them all in place and written clearly, she might at least be able to get the translator app to recognize the language, but it was a lost cause. She might have asked a colleague, but that was the problem with being a, uh borrower.

As she was putting the last of the ingredients in, her gaze snagged on the cover art she had transcribed and the words that went around it. "One is all, and if you have not all, all is nothing."

Every time she read those words, it made her smile. One of her favorite shows growing up had used something like them, and it was funny how close they were. She suddenly froze and blinked a few times as she read through it again. She looked down at the page, at the undecipherable writing, and then back to her pot. "Surely not."

Still, the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to try it. It wasn't as though it would hurt anything. If it failed, it would just be one more failure, right? She laughed at herself as she grabbed the knife she had been cutting ingredients with. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

Still, she gritted her teeth and sliced the end of her finger open. "A little life material to gain life material back? Maybe."

She held her finger over the pot and let it drip for several seconds before she pulled it back and grabbed a rag she had on hand. She then turned the heat on and sat back with a stupid grin. She chuckled to herself. "Well, at least I know that perhaps I should have focused more on my soul instead, huh?"

She hadn't been expecting an answer and didn't really get one. At least not in the form of words. She was shocked when she saw the circle she had drawn started to glow. She jumped up out of pure reaction and knocked her pot over. Not that it mattered. The floor under her had already begun to shake, and her feet felt like they were glued to it.

Suddenly the boards seemed to twist, and a line formed. It then snapped open to reveal an eye that was staring up at her. Anna wanted to scream, but nothing was coming out. This couldn't be real. Her mind was rejecting what she was seeing and immediately thought she must have added something that created noxious fumes. As she felt herself plummet, she did finally scream. All she could think was that she hoped her landlords came to check on her before whatever it was did more than knock her out.

She closed her eyes and tried not to be sick as she rushed past twisted images that made no sense. It wasn't until she finally came to a stop that she opened her eyes. She blinked a few times to get used to the brightness. There was nothing but white. No walls, no floor, no source for the light, and her mind was rejecting the impossibility of it.

Before she was given a chance to panic, a voice called out. "Anna, Anna, Anna. Do you know how long it has been since I have seen someone from your particular corner of the multiverse?"

Anna jerked around and froze. There was someone there, but there also wasn't. She couldn't quite see a person. It was more like the air was denser, or the light refracted just a little differently. Again, her mind could not accept it. She was given no time to argue as the thing took a step closer, and she suddenly saw that it had an eye. At that same moment, she felt a sharp pain explode in the left side of her face.

Her hand reached up instinctively, but she cringed at the warm, sticky, wet feeling her fingertips encountered. She choked back a scream and shook her head. "What is this?"

The being chuckled. "Do not pretend you don't know. It will be easier for you to accept if you quit lying to yourself."

"No." Her voice was barely a whisper, but she wasn't given a chance to do more when the thing smiled and Anna felt sick. She knew what was coming and refused to admit it. Still, despite her horror, she looked over her shoulder. She did scream then. Long and loud as her gate opened and the many hands came pouring out to take her.

She tried to grab the doors as she felt the things wrap around her and pull her into oblivion. The last thing she saw was a wave that was barely seen. The last words she heard before the blackness took her did not help her understand at all. "Since it's been so long, I think it might be best for you to take a little trip. See, I can be merciful too."