Prologue:

It was raining heavily, water ran down the lines between the bricks in the street and bounced off roofs with a constant pattering sound. The man hadn't wanted to leave his house all, let alone trek across half the country for this, especially with his wife's recent pregnancy. But he felt it, a thin burn on his wrists and in his bones, he had no doubt his unborn child felt it as well. It was their legacy, their family's legacy, the culmination of centuries worth of duty. So when he first felt the burn the night of October 2nd he told his wife he loved her, packed a suitcase and left.

He turned from the main road down down a winding side street and stopped walking when he reached a destitute building. The building was made from red bricks but still managed to look grey and sickly compared to the chipper white townhouses surrounding it. The steps leading up to the wooden door were hazardous with cracked and missing bricks. He took the steps two at a time. Best to decrease his probability of dying from steps he thought. When he reached the top he grabbed the rusty knocker and banged it loudly three times.

He waited in silence until at last with a creak the door swung inwards. Before him stood a greying matron holding up a flickering lamp.

"Do you know the bloody hour?" she demanded in a hushed whisper, "I have an orphanage full of whiny brats that are liable to wake up screeching over a dropped pin and you come banging on the door! Who are you? What do you want?"

"I'm a census taker." He said simply. He was neither apologetic or angry over her tone. "I need a count of all the babies you've recently taken in, anyone under six months."

The matron looked at him suspiciously, "Census taker eh? Couldn't have come at a reasonable hour?"

"I apologize. I'm from central and the trip out here took longer than expected. But there is a schedule to keep." the man said as he glanced down at his pocket watch for emphasis.

"Well then you've made a trip out here for nothing. The three babies we took in over the last year all died from typhoid three weeks ago along with half the other kids since the state can't be bothered to fund orphanages."

"Oh," the man replied and with that he turned and walked back the way he came, leaving a glaring matron staring him off in the rain.

There hadn't been a monster reported by his family for the last three generations. But now it appeared the beast was done waiting. The knowledge was passed from parent to child so when the signs of an emergence appeared they would be recognized. The problem was never really recognizing the emergence though, that could be felt in the blood and bones, no it was always finding the vessel the damned thing was stored in.

He'd been searching for six months for the monster with an alchemical elemental compass and a restless itch that seemed to pick up the closer he got. The search was always the same, he would wander from town to town following the compass knocking on houses, orphanages, police stations inquiring about strange accidents and recent births.

He wished he could find the vessel already. He longed to return to his wife, to his life, and to his research. Of course he recognized that there would be a drastic change once he found the vessel. All of his family histories reported this. But the acceleration in his research would offset this, whenever the demons were found the alchemists research went from scholarly to genius overnight. It was as if the demons granted some new sight that remade the cosmos. Perhaps they did, the man wouldn't know that part was never mentioned. All he knew was that he could practically feel the heat from the demon racing in his veins and that the longer he let the thing loose in Amestris, unbound, the more dire the consequences.

His search had taken him from his home in the country now to the borders of the great Eastern Desert. It was early morning when he reached a small town. His blood was racing in his veins, he knew this was it. The demon was here.

The town was very small. The mainstreet had only a few shops scattered about: a hatter, a grocer and a hardware store. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary he kept walking.

Down a street to the left. His heart was nearly screaming at him. Then he saw it. Between two opulent townhouses there was nothing but ash. Burnt beams and melted artifacts littered the ground.

He ran to the next house over and pounded on the door. The door was barely opened when he flung his arm in pushing it the rest of the way. "Who lived next door?!" He demanded in the face of a startled maid.

"It- it was an army officer and his wife." the startled woman shrieked out.

"What happened?" the man asked stepping closer.

"No one knows. It was a dry season and somehow a fire got started. Everything inside was burned up." the maid answered in a rush. She stepped back from the wild looking man.

"And the child?!" the man interrogated.

"Yes- yes I do remember a child. He was but a few months old. He had a big set of lungs on him. Crying all the time."

The man cursed. "Where is the child now?"

"Alive, thank god. He was the only survivor. He's staying with a foster family on Xerxes lane." with that the man was rushing back down the stairs of the house. he didn't even stop as the bewildered maid called after him, "Are you a relative?"

This was it. The vessel was here. Now he just needed to collect it.

-X-

Author's note: I've had a story for this Au sitting in my head ever since I saw some fanart of Roy and Riza with swapped clothes so now that my finals are done I've finally gotten around to starting it! I also always wondered why Riza's father didn't teach her flame alchemy so here you go everyone Riza as the Alchemist and Roy as her lieutenant. Anyways I'm intending for this to be a multi-chaptered fic that will vaguely follow canon and then diverge rapidly as I do some of my own world building. I've already got some of it plotted out, but I'm not sure what the update schedule is going to look like yet. Also props to whoever can guess who the man in the prologue is I promise he's a real character whose gonna pop up later. This is just laying down some plot that's going to be very important later on so bare with me the rest of the cast will make an appearance next chapter. I'm also not the best with written grammar or spelling so if you see anything I've missed please let me know. And as always reviews give me motivation! Let me know what you guys think!