-The navy-haired woman gave a glance to her blonde husband. As she snapped her gloves on, he readied the fairly-sized syringe. Her hair thrown into a ponytail, several strands hung in her face. Her azure eyes were covered by thin-framed, rounded-rectangular lenses, which usually glared, even without light. "Do you really think it's going to work this time, Darryl?"

The blonde grinned, narrowing his eyes. "Oh, Selena, you're such a silly little one, my love." He held up the syringe and flicked the needle at the end. "Have I ever led you wrong before?"

Selena smiled and took the syringe from him. As she pushed her glasses up, they flashed. "Well, we did ask Shou if it would work. He said it might not have the results we anticipated, didn't he?"

"Yes, well, that's true." Darryl swept his bangs back out of his eyes, looking at his wife. "He also said, however, that our findings were..." He put his hands over each of her arms, gently guiding her. "Interesting. Our research made sense, he told us, so it may give us the correct results."

"Yes... it may..." Selena looked down at the subject on the experimentation table.

The young girl was held on the metal table by fetters around her wrists and ankles, as well as a steel band strapping down her waist and hips. She thrashed every so often, causing her rosy hair to flail about around her pale face. She was whimpering and crying, all too aware of what was going to happen. She had been subjected to her parents' experiments many times before. While they usually caused her a monumental amount of pain, they had no adverse effects. Nothing unusual had ever happened after them when the pain faded away. But this time would probably be different.

She had absolutely no idea how to get away, but she knew she had to.

Selena raised her gloved hand, poised to inject her daughter with the needle. Inside the syringe, the metallic fuschia liquid swished around. In it was a specialized transfusion of alchemically enhanced water and mercury, the liquid of immortality. As the water was red and the mercury was silver, the mixture was colored pastel fuschia, an odd hue to see. "Don't worry, darling," Selena crooned, holding her daughter's arm down to administer the shot. "It won't hurt for too long, gorgeous."

Despite this obviously fake reassurance, the girl still struggled. Now unable to move her arm, she thrashed her head, sobbing and begging to be let go.

Selena ignored her child's cries. With Darryl's assistance, she gripped the girl's upper arm and purposefully plunged the needle into their daughter's arm.

The girl gave a shriek and began to wriggle again, twisting her body wildly. Tears sprung from her gray eyes, as she shouted to be released.

Selena looked around for a knife. If this worked and the girl became a hybrid, it had to be assured that she could always perform alchemy. Finally settling on a crude method, she snatched the sharpened scalpel from the table. She grabbed the girl's right hand and drew her palm upward. She reeled back, ready to strike. "Today the first Homunculus-human is born - Skye the hybrid!" Blue eyes wide, she brought the point down on her daughter's flesh and carved a transmutation circle into the girl's palm.

The child, Skye, screamed in pain at this new egregious act. Globules of blood spattered over the floor and steel table, creating a hauntingly interesting mosaic. She wailed and screeched as she tried to get away from her mother.

Selena tossed the scalpel aside, and it clattered to the floor. She fumbled in her pocket for a few seconds. Without the final but ever-so-vital ingredient, the transmutation wouldn't stick. Skye would just revert back to her human form. Finally she pulled out the broken remains of a cracked Philosopher's Stone. Slimy fluid seeped from it, and Selena cursed herself for putting the thing in her pocket. She picked up the largest fragment and pressed it to her daughter's mouth. "Eat it!" she yelled. "Eat the Stone, you little brat!"

"Mmm!" The ten-year-old turned her head away from Selena, not wanting to eat this new, odd substance. "Mama, let me go! Please, Mama, stop!"

"Damn it, do as I say!" Selena wasn't sure how much time they had left. The one thing she was sure of, however, was that State Alchemists would be breaking the door down (literally) any minute now. There was no doubt that Dr. Shou Tucker had spoken of their work to Dr. Marcoh, who had unquestioningly ratted them out to the military dogs. The state would be upon them any second. No... they didn't have time to bend to their stubborn, ungrateful child. "Eat it!" She pushed again, and at last was successful in getting the portion of crimson rock past her daughter's lips.

She heard Skye bit down once, splitting the Stone between her teeth. But she neither saw nor heard the girl gulp down the life-sustaining gem. Now becoming furious, Selena squeezed the child's cheeks with just one hand. There was no time for Jewel's reluctance at the moment. "Damn you! Swallow it or I'll kill you!"

It was an empty threat, but it seemed to be effective in scaring the girl. Skye struggled for a few seconds, then she was at last able to push the Stone down her throat, after which she began to cough violently. This frightened Selena into thinking this may

make the Stone come right back up.

A bright flash of light blinded the two alchemically inclined scientists. Darryl drew Selena in to protect her, as the pinkette threw an arm across her eyes.

When the light had faded, only then did they dare to open their eyes. As they did, they were both shocked and delighted. What sat on the table wasn't their daughter. It looked like Skye, sure, but it was painfully obvious that even if it still was her, it wasn't anything human. A streak of bright pink ran down the back of her blue hair, and her nails were claws. A mark called Ouroboros replaced the freshly bleeding alchemy symbols on her palm. Her outfit had changed to a revealing all black ensemble, and her eyes glowed red. Angel-like wings protruded from her shoulder blades, but they wer black instead of white. She had broken free of the chains, and she now just sat there on the table in a crouched-over position, staring at her parents with her dead ruby eyes, partially hidden by thick eyelashes.

Before either of the scientists could do or say anything, the door flew open. Standing behind it were two State Alchemists, and they were both armed. They both held guns, aimed at the family of three.

"Alright, you sickos," one of them called out, loud and clear. "Before we do anything, we're going to give you two monsters the chance to be arrested quietly. And if not..." He cocked his gun, making it reflect as it let out a frightening noise. This made Skye draw back with a gasp, obviously entranced by the gunmetal as it flashed in her eyes.

Nobody had any time to speak or move. All of a sudden, Skye - who had become distraught and frightened by the whole mess - seemed to discover one of her new powers. Her onyx angel wings grew and shot out like tentacles, wrapping the two State Alchemists in their grasp. In the uncertainty and confusion, they dropped their guns. One of them misfired, and shot Darryl - the bullet traveled at an upward angle, and he collapsed, quite obviously dead.

Skye let out an inhuman scream, and squeezed the two militia officials in her tentacle-wings for a few seconds. "GET OUT OF HERE!" she shrieked, and then flung them out the door. A thud resounded as the two landed, and both of them let out a shout of pain.

Selena, horrified at the child's newfound strength, stumbled back. Why was Skye doing this? She hadn't been ordered to! "S-Skye," she managed to stammer out, clutching furiously at the ground. "I command you not to do this! Change to your human form now! Right now! Obey me, damn you! I created you!"

Skye was quickly advancing on her mother. "You're so stupid, Mom," she snarled, flexing her fingers and allowing the little light left in the room to glint of off her new claws. "First off, it should be obvious to you - I can't change my form at will. Dumbass." Her hand shot out and wrapped around Selena's throat. "And I always hated you! You don't treat me like you should treat a child!" Her grip tightened, until her mother was coughing up blood. "You don't love me! You never did! You just treat me like I'm a damn experiment, not even worth the effort to keep alive! You disgusting bitch, you were never my mother! I hate you! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" She squeezed even tighter.

Selena choked on the blood coming up. She gagged and tried to move, tried to get her daughter's hands off of her neck. Unsuccessful, she let her body go limp. A crack resounded as Jewel broke her mother's neck. Selena's eyes rolled back in her head, revealing only white, and she slumped dead to the floor.

Skye's clouding anger faded, allowing her true self to surface again. Confused, she staggered away from the corpses of her parents. She looked at her palm to wail over the transmutation circle, but was terrified by what she found. The marks on her palm were flashing back and forther between the circle her mother had inscribed, and a horrific symbol of a dragon in a circle eating its own tail.

Skye didn't know what to do. Sure, her parents had abused her. But at least they did take fairly good care of her. She wasn't sure where to go. Perhaps her best bet was to find Dr. Shou Tucker? Her mother had talked of him often. If he'd known her parents, maybe he would be willing to help her.

She remembered the State Alchemists she'd just flung out the door. Would they be after her too?

Not sure where to turn, Skye thrust her hands at the back door. As it was locked, she was hoping to open it with alchemy by exchanging some of her energy for opening the door. After a few seconds, the lock broke and the door opened. She ran through it and escaped into the forest, wanting to stay away from the alchemists.

"Where am I supposed to go now?" she asked in a small voice.

Nobody answered. But then again, she hadn't expected anyone to.

... OK... don't kill me for this. My friend said the thing with her eating the Philosopher's Stone and turning Homunculus thing made absolutely no sense to him but... I dunno. Even if it doesn't make sense, it seemed somewhat plausible so... yeah.

... Leave nice reviews? ^^