"No… Give him back… He's my brother! He's my brother, dammit!" Ed wailed. "Alphonse… Alphonse!" Crawling over to the corner, amid the rubble of their failed transmutation and that… that monster in the middle of the chalk circle, Ed's leg gushes blood and he struggles toward a clear corner. "Give him back… Give me back my brother, dammit!" Ed paints a crest on the floor with the blood spilling out of his leg, and draws marks over his forehead and both arms.
Activating the circles, Ed screams as his right arm is torn away from him, and his mind goes up in flames.
As Alphonse Elric's eyes cleared up, he noticed two things. First, he was sitting, covered in scratches, in a transmutation circle made of blood. Second, his older brother was bleeding on the ground in front of him. With a cry of "Brother!" Al crawled towards the bleeding child.
"Hey… Al…" the boy spoke, and coughed. "Your body was ripped away… I gave my arm for your soul… and… some… some memories for… your body." The boy fainted, and his brother struggled to drag him outside. He and his older brother were covered in blood, and Ed needed medical attention.
As he struggled outside, Al found himself in front of a strange chimera. It appeared to be a cross between a palm tree and a human, but who would have the audacity to try human transmutation but a couple of stupid kids?
"Hey, kid. Give me the pip-squeak." The man said.
"Woah, you talk?!" Al exclaimed, taking a step back.
"Yes, I talk, and if you want to save the kid, give him to me. He needs more medical attention than these automail mechanics can give."
"But… why? Who are you? Please, just help brother!" Al began to cry.
Striding forward, Al made out more detail about the man. He was wearing a shirt that looked like a sports bra over his well defined chest, and had some kind of sash around his shorts, making him look like he was wearing a skirt. He was barefoot, and had a tattoo of a dragon eating it's tail on his thigh. The man grabbed the older Elric and cradled him in his arms. "Don't worry, kid. I need him alive for what we have planned. I'm sure you'll see your brother again." With a grin, the man turned and walked away, leaving a crying child in the dirt of the path.
As Ed came to, he felt different. He grinned. "Alright, I grew overnight!" Ed said, and tried to sit up and punch the air with his right fist, but felt himself wobble before falling to the right. He tried to catch himself with his right arm, but he couldn't feel it, and then tried to hook his left leg on the edge of his bed. He felt rushing by his knee and gasped as he plopped on his side in the sheets of the enormous bed. Slowly becoming aware of his surroundings, Ed gasped. "Where am I?" He muttered.
"Underneath central, Pipsqueak," a horse voice said.
"Ah!" Ed jumped, and found himself upright in the bed, staring at a green-haired cross between a palm tree and a man who was regarding him from a plush, overstuffed armchair in front of the bed's open curtains. "Who are you calling short?" He added, his eyes narrowing dangerously.
"You, of course." The man said nonchalantly, ignoring the child's glare. "Now, what's the last thing you remember."
Taken aback, the child put his left index finger to his face, and thought deeply. "Hmm…" he mulled it over, and found gaps. "I remember a few things, but… wait… Al and the transmutation… no! No! Where is he?! What have you done with Al? Why did you bring me here? What do you—" Ed's onslaught of questions was stopped by the man's sigh.
"Look, kid, I just need to know what you know, and what you remember. Amnesia is not what we need right now."
"Well, I remember my brother… and my mom… Dad left a long time ago… then I skip a bit, there are some flashes of a blond girl and my brother, I really care about him, then… mom died." He looked down. "Al and I trained with a teacher for a while and then… Oh, God, what have I done?!" Ed gasped for breath, and began to hyperventilate, when he found himself in a warm embrace.
Ed held his breath, and slowly relaxed into the hug. A single tear trickled down his face, which was buried in the older man's chest. Taking a deep breath, Ed pushed away from the green-ette, blushing.
"My name's Ed. You are?"
"Call me Envy, little brother."
"Who are you calling so small he couldn't drown in a teardrop because he's so small he could breath the oxygen in the water cells?!" Ed raged. Envy's eyes were wide, but he was grinning, and he laughed.
"I think you'll be just fine." He said, baring his teeth and grinning wolfishly.