Hello, everyone. This is a collaborative story with my dear friend, Artemis_HNR. We do not claim FullMetal Alchemist or its characters as our own, all credit goes to Hiromu Arakawa. We did create the sisters Cassi and Amy. We hope you enjoy it as much as we had writing it ^_^


I

The basement was dark as usual with only a small lamp illuminating the crowded desk. It swung steadily from a thin chain, creating a spotlight on the hunched figure over the desk. Down here, it smelled of coffee and human sweat, as if the sole occupant was doing heavy lifting instead of doing calculations. The stairs creaked as someone descended into the darkened room.

"Mom?" a girl called. She rubbed her arms, the basement always gave her a creepy feeling. "Dad says dinner's ready…" she let her words hang in the air but her mother seemed to be in a world of her own. "Mom?" she called again and shuffled forward. Her mother's dark hair had fallen loose from her ponytail and looked greasy in the light. Suddenly, the woman shot up from her seat with a yell.

"I've got it!" She dashed to a corner of the room, it was amazing she didn't stumble on all the scraps of computers and machines she had laying around. The generator hummed to life and the rest of the basement burst into a ray of light. The girl had to cover her eyes and wait for them to adjust to the new brightness. The room wasn't large, but it seemed small because it was filled with junk. Her mother loved to collect scraps and tinker down here in the dark, her latest project, her "baby", always kept her for hours at a time, sometimes days. Most times it seemed she and her sister didn't even have a mother. The only times they could drag her out of her hovel was when they put on the Harry Potter movies, or more recently Doctor Who episodes. The girl turned as she heard someone else enter the basement.

"Amy, did you tell her dinner is on?" her sister asked.

"I told her, Cassi," Amy said, "not like it matters." Cassi stood beside her and they watched their mother's frenzy as she hopped over the scattered machinery on the floor. She was mumbling under her breath as she pulled random pieces and placed them together.

"Mom? MOM!" Cassi yelled and finally the woman turned around. She beamed at her daughters and swept her hands on her dirty lab coat.

"Hello girls," she said in a faint English accent. "What? Is lunch on? Tell your father, I'll eat in a bit. I'm almost finished. I'm certain this time."

"It's dinnertime, mom." Amy began but their mother had already returned to her tinkering. She rubbed her temples, a movement her sister mirrored.

Amy marched forward and yanked on her mother's lab coat. "Mom, come on up. Please," she said. Finally, their mother seemed to come down from her cloud and studied the two girls.

"Oh dears, I haven't been a good mother, have I?" She motioned Cassi forward and looped an arm around them both. "Oh my sweet, sweet girls. Come, let us have some dinner and maybe a bit of telly."

Amy giggled, glad to have their mother back even for a short while. They silenced the generator and the lights blinked off, leaving the single bulb again.

"So, what are you working on this time mom?" Cassi asked as they went up the stairs.

"Oh, something marvelous!" the woman clapped her hands. "I think I've figured out the secrets of time travel—oh is that beef stew I smell?"

Their father, leaned back in his seat, arms out wide, "Ah! The prodigal wife returns!" he said with a smile. It was obvious that the girls received most of their looks from their mother, her long black hair and pale skin. They didn't have her black eyes however, nor their father's brown eyes; their eyes were a light grey, or silver as their mother liked to say. They each took their seats and began to eat.

"Yes, so my girls as I was telling you before, I believe I have found after 16 years of tedious work and dedication the secret to Time-Travel." She said and gave a mystical wave of her hand.

"Are you serious?" Amy asked through a mouthful of stew.

"Swallow, dear."

She did and asked, "your machine, mom, do you really think you can travel through time?"

Their mother nodded enthusiastically, "yes yes, I'm surprised why I didn't see the solution sooner. The Doctor was right along. Time isn't linear—"

"Goal!"

"Dad!" the twins cried. He looked at them sheepishly, and turned off his phone. He blew a kiss to his wife who pretended to catch it.

"Wasn't that the block…"
"It's Bloke dad."
"Right sorry. The Bloke," He raised his eyebrow to Cassi, " who said time was wibbly? That doesn't sound like science to me," he said.

"Time is "from a non-linear, non-subjective point of view, more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff".

"You always sound so sexy when you speak nerd." He said dryly.

"Dad!" the twins yelled and made the point to plug their ears.

"What?" he shrugged, "you were made somehow. You're almost sixteen, you should know all about this. Now girls because apparently you can't remember, when your daddy met mommy they decided to go to a concert. At that concert mommy and daddy got hopelessly drunk and we went home together and clothes magically started disappearing…. "
"LA LA LA LA LA I'm not hearing this! LA LA LA LA LA!" Cassi started yelling at the top of her lungs.

"AS I was saying," their mother cleared her throat, "time isn't linear and of course, neither is space."

"That's three dimensional," Cassi said.

"Correct!" their mother beamed. "But that's not all, let's say, that time is the fourth dimension and the fifth..."

She never slowed in her explanations, most of the words she used flew over the girls' and their father's heads. Dinner finished quickly and both adults were off to bed, leaving the girls to their own devices. They lay on the floor, eyes glued to the television as they watched their favorite show, Full metal Alchemist. They had the volume turned down low as to not disturb their parents.

Suddenly, the television went dark.

The girls looked to each other in irritation. Above their heads the fan started to whirl to a stop. Getting up the two turned to the kitchen and the neon glow of the microwave was dead as well.

"Damn it, let's go check the box," Amy said. They grabbed the emergency flashlight from the pantry closet and ventured into black of the basement hand in hand. The flashlight's glow created creeping, monstrous shadows along the walls. The darkness intensified the sounds of the room, the dying clicks of the air conditioner, the groaning of the house above them, the pounding in their hearts and the skittering of something along the floor. Amy clung to her sister as they stopped in their tracks.

Something clattered nearby and they jumped.

"Sorry," Cassi whispered. "I hit something."

They continued slowly until a loud crash made them scream. Amy turned to bolt right back to the stairs but tripped. The flashlight fell from her hand and spun across the floor. In the light's beam, two eyes shone brightly.

"Oliver!" Cassi said with annoyance and picked up the orange tabby. "Shoo!" she placed him on the steps and he dashed up. Cassi snickered as she then helped up her sister, "Oliver scared you," she said in sing-song.

"Shut it," Amy punched Cassi's arm and they continued their trek.

The fuse box was on the other side of the basement by the generator. Amy handed the light to Cassi, and opened the box. She expertly flipped an array of switches and the basement blinked to life in various whirls and hums.

"Alright, we should be good." The two turned to go but stopped at the sight of their mother's machine. It didn't look like much, more akin to a heap of scrap rather than a fine tuned machine. The base was square, bulky and had wires running out of it into the genie. A short rod rose from the base and ended into an old keyboard that was missing the function and shift keys. On the table next to the machine was an old, bulky computer monitor from the 90's. On its screen was a blinking green line.

"She must have forgotten to turn it off," Cassi said.

"Maybe, yeah." Amy said. "Should we turn it off?"

Cassi pressed the power button and a stream of green numbers and characters ran down the computer screen. She whispered, "crap!" After a few seconds, the computer read:

C:\ Enter Destination:

Diagon Alley;

ERROR

Request time out

ERROR; destination not found

C:\ exit

"She tried…." Amy started.

"...to go to Diagon Alley," Cassi finished. The girls sighed.

"I knew she was obsessed, but this is a whole new level."

"She's probably making a game," Cassi said, "let's try it out." Her hand darted forward to the keyboard.

"Or...mom has finally snapped. Don't touch it and let's head back, I hate this place." Amy tugged at her sister's shirt but her eyes stared at the screen. "Cassi..."

"It's not like it's gonna work," she said as she pressed the backspace button. The words that replaced Diagon Alley with Ametris. "And...enter," she said as her finger hovered over the key.

"Cassi!" Amy chided and tried to grab her hand. Cassi shoved her back.

"Just a quick check."

"No! We're going upstairs." They struggled over the keyboard and accidentally hit a few extra keys. They stumbled over the base, Cassi had a fist full of her sister's hair while Amy's teeth clamped down on her arm. Neither girl relented until they heard a series of pings. They froze and turned to the monitor.

The screen read:

Enter Destination

Ametris; XXXXXXXX

Location found

"No way." Cassi whispered in awe.

"It's a mistake," Amy countered. It had to be. Another line popped onto the screen.

Standby

"Standby for what?" Amy didn't have to wait for an answer, the machine's base emitted a ghastly whirling sound and bright light engulfed them. Then they were falling.