Disclaimer: This fanfiction is not for profit and has no connection with Hiromu Arakawa, Funimation, or any other licensees or affiliates of Fullmetal Alchemist.
A dark Ora around the house, a blue light bursting out of the windows. Inside something terrible was happening. Dark purple and blue lights. Lightening coming from no where in particular. Screaming, yelling.
Edward shot up in bed, breathing heavily, sweat dripping from his face. He held his face in his hands.
"Ed, are you okay?" an echo like voice came from the corner.
Edward dropped his hands so he could look at them in full view. Flesh and auto mail. He took a one deep breath and lyed his head back down.
"Yeah, sorry I worried you," he apologized while looking up the the ceiling.
What had if meant? It was so similar to that night. But so different all the same. He thought about that one, horrible night all the time. Every time he looked at his bother, every time he looked at his right arm and left leg, every time he thought about his mother and what they did to her and themselves that night. It never left his mind, and he was afraid if never would.
But all the same he didn't want it to. All the things he did. All the lives he destroyed or messed up, he deserved to suffer the thought of it all. He deserved to have to have all of it blamed on him, because deep down he knew that it was all his fault. What an idiotic boy he was.
Edward turned over on his side so he was facing the wall and slowly fell into unconsciousness thinking about all the dreadful things he's done in his short life of existence.
~xxxxx~
Edward awoke to the sound of metal clashing with metal.
"Al, what are you doing?" He asked with a sigh. He then sat up with a dead look on his face that told everyone that looked at him that he had a hard and difficult night, and that he didn't have much energy to do much of anything.
There was no answer from his younger brother, so he swung his legs over the side of the bed and slowly stood up with as little effort as possible and walked into the main room that had their kitchen and living room all as one.
The two brother's were currently staying in a small apartment in Central together. Their Dip-shit of a boss found them the place. It was so close to central headquarters that Mustang didn't have to go far to fetch them, which is why, to Ed, he pick this place out of all the others that he looked at.
Colonel Roy Mustang, AKA The Flame Alchemist. He was a tall man with jet black hair, with bangs that looked as if they were spiked. You would always see him in his uniform unless he was a the bars with his subordinates. He wore white gloves made of ignition close and had special complicated transmutation circle inscribed on each.
Edward hated the Colonel most of the time but he couldn't do much because they were in depted to the air-head. He risked is title to help the brothers, he was the one that made it possible for Edward to have been instated as a State Alchemist, he was the reason the brothers have gotten this far.
Edward looked around to see nothing at all. The noise had stopped and it was now dead silent. He looked around to see the kitchen in ruins. He turned on his heal with his mouth gaping open to see that the furniture in the living room had been cut to shreds.
"ALPHONSE!" Edward yelled at the top of his lungs. No answer.
Edward clapped his hands together and his auto mail turned into a knife like weapon that he often favored for close combat or sparing.
He walked slowly towards the door, putting his ear against it to see if he could hear anything outside. Nothing.
He slowly grabbed the door handle and swung it open jumping in front of it in a ready stance. He slowly lowered his arm when he saw Alphonse sitting on a girl about Edward's age.
"Hi Brother," Alphonse greeted happily, like all of this was completely normal. Edward glared at him.
"Do you have any idea what Mustang is going to do when I tell him we need everything new for the kitchen and living room? He's going to blow my ear off. What the hell is going on?" Edward's voice was raised and angry. Alphonse stood to try to explain.
"I found her in our house, I had to wrestle her out here..." he looked up at the sky in deep thought, "I didn't think we made a mess!?" He said out loud more as a thought than a statement to his brother who now had his hands crossed at his chest.
Edward then looked down at the girl that was sitting on the ground. Her legs were crossed, along with her arms. She looked extremely stubborn. Edward already didn't like her. She had long, light brown hair and golden eyes, she was short like Ed, or so it seemed. Edward took a few steps toward her to see some piercings on each ear. She was also wearing strange closes.
"Who are you? And what the hell do you want?" Edward didn't know if she was with the homunculus, or with Mustang, or just a random girl that decided she wanted to break into their apartment.
The girl looked away with her nose up in the air. Edward took a deep breath.
"If you don't tell me, I'll beat it out of you," he warned.
The girl's head turned slowly and her face fell, looking at the ground as if she didn't want to look Edward in the eyes. As if she was afraid.
"Katie," the girl whispered.
"Katie uh? Well what are you doing here?" Ed wanted to get as much as he could out of her.
"I don't know," her voice was low, both brothers had to strain the hear her properly.
"You don't know?" Edward asked in disbelief and you could hear a hint of none believing in his voice.
The girl nodded. Before Edward could go on with his interrogation they all turned to the sound of a voice.
"What are you guys doing up so early, I thought I would have to pull you out of bed, but I guess not." Mustang was in his uniform, like always, and was walking up the sidewalk to their apartment. He stopped talking when he saw Katie sitting on the ground covered in dirt. "Well, who might this be?" He asked.
"Her name is Katie, that's all we know. She broke in last night according to Al. She doesn't know why she's here," Edward looked at her. "Or so she tells me," Edward told the Colonel, standing back to let him take over.
The Colonol came closer to the girl. When he was at arms length he kneelt down and smiled warmly at her. Mustang knew that people gave into him more when he smiled like that. He got a lot farther and lot more when he played the good guy. Especially with girls, no matter what the age.
"So, where are you from darling?" He asked. His face soft, wrinkles of despair disappeared, and a smile that told others that he was a good person deep down. With a face like that no one could resist the urge to confide in him.
"Germany," she was looking in his face now. Unlike Edward, Roy looked much more nicer and was more soft spoken.
"Where is that?" Roy was quite confused as to hear of a place that he has never heard before.
"I don't know where I am," she looked at him. Tears forming in her eyes to show that she was truly scared. This girl was lost.
"Well Hun, how did you get here?" He asked. Edward looked at him and cocked his head to the side. He never thought to ask how she got here. Sure she didn't know where she was, but she didn't just 'show up.' That's not physically possible.
"I don't remember," she told him, with a tear escaping and running down her face. Roy reached up, Katie flinching at the sudden movement. He whipped a finger across her cheek to get rid of any signs that a tear was ever there.
"Can you tell me what you do remember?" He asked her in a quiet, soothing tone.
"Father, he was doing weird things. Making circles and putting things together. He was chanting," she stopped sniffling, then began again. "He told me that we had to go away, that it wasn't safe anymore. I was confused but listened to what he told me."
"And what did he tell you?" Edward piped up, the girl jumping.
She didn't answer at first. She looked over at Mustang and he nodded for her to go on.
"He told me to stand in the circle he drew in our basement. I was reading it while he was getting stuff, I don't know what it said. It didn't make sense, it was like it was a different language. When he came back he had all kids of stuff that you can buy from the store and then he started measuring things and pouring things into the circle," she then looked down at the ground. When she raised her head she only looked at Mustang, " he told me that he would see me on the other side."
All three boys had no idea what she was talking about. They were all quiet, thinking, trying to put it all together. Mustang was the first to get up, he turned and looked at Edward.
"I'm going to use your phone, stay out here with the girl," he turned back to the girl and smiled. "Do you think you can sit tight for a minute while I make a phone call?" He asked her. She only nodded in response.
When Roy was inside he went strait to the phone, and dialed a very familiar number.
"Riza, I need you down at the Elric's apartment as soon as possible," there was a pause. "A girl broke into their house. She doesn't know how she got here, or why she's even here in the first place. How is sounds is that she just teleported here. I don't know what's going on or if this has anything to do with the military but she's extremely distraught. I would like you to take her with you and clean her up." He told Riza goodbye and then hung up the phone.
He turned on his heal to see what he missed when he first came into the apartment. The house was destroyed, everything was out of place or unable to be used anymore. If he didn't know better himself he would have thought he was sitting in a garbage dump. He sighed and thought about scolding Ed but then remembered that he had more important things to do.
He walked back outside to find that all three children were in the same positions he left them in. He sighed thinking of how troublesome this was for a Sunday morning.
~xxxxx~
Riza had come and gotten Katie and took her back to her place to clean her up and get her a clean pair of cloths, that looked more normal, that didn't shout that she was from another world.
Edward hasn't said a word, and neither has Alphonse for he was still trying to put it together. Colonel Air-Head was complaining about how troublesome to two brothers were.
"It's not like I asked for her to break in. She just did, I can't see how that's my fault in any way," Edward argued, glaring at the Colonel.
"Yeah, well lets just try to figure out where the hell she came from and why she's here," Mustang told the boys. "And while we're at that, try to lock your doors every once in a while, might save us both some time and energy."
"Like I said Colonel, I didn't post a sigh saying 'rob me'," Edward looked over to see the Colonel ignoring his every word. Edward stomped back into their apartment mummbling to himself about the boss he wished he could kill.
He looked back to look at Roy who was standing by Alphonse. He turned on his heal and walked back to where they was waiting for Riza. He spoke with no warning.
"I have a theory," Edward told him, a bit of a whisper. Both Mustang and Alphonse looked at him in confusion, but very surprised that he thought up anything. They both knew he was more of a physical being than a thinking one.
You can tell me when we get to Headquarters. They drove the rest of the way in silence. When they got there Ed and Al followed Mustang to his office . Roy went straight to his chair and the brothers both sat on the couch in front of the desk.
"So tell me Edward, what have you been thinking. And If you tell me something like 'She magicly transported here' don't even bother," he looked down at his paper thinking that with whatever it was that Edward was think that if wouldn't be all that great and if wasn't worth paying attention to.
"I think she came through The Gate," Edward said bluntly. Edward now had both Mustang and Alphonse's full and undivided attention. "It all makes sense, circles with ingredients, enchantments. He was reading out of a book, and she read a different language on the circle, of which he was putting stuff into and she didn't have any idea what it he was saying or what the circle said," he then looked Mustang straight in the face. "Then he said 'See you on the other side.'"
~xxxxx~
Edward was sitting at one of the extremely long tables in the cafeteria at HQ alone. Nibbling on a piece of bread, with the rest of his tray of food untouched. He turned to a fimiliar voice that he hated with all of his existence.
"That's a rare sight. Edward Elric sitting, with a full plate of food. Oh, look your milk is even untouched, but I guess that usual isn't it? At least you're not totally insane...yet." Edward looked up at his so called 'boss' and just glared. He didn't have time or energy to argue with the incompetent fool.
"Is there a reason you're here?" He asked looking up, putting his piece of bread down.
"Well I thought you would like to know that Katie seems stable enough to talk and able to answer questions," Mustang told him with a 'I don't care about the world' tone. Edward on the other hand shot up out of his seat. And started to walk, only to turn around to see Mustang's shocked expression at the sudden energy the small boy seemed to have all of a sudden.
"Are you coming or not?" Edward asked. Then turning on his heal to walk out.
~xxxx~
The two guys were now sitting in Mustang's office waiting for the arrival of Riza and Katie.
It's been three days since the girl showed up in Ed and Al's apartment, and three long days at that. Katie has been staying with Riza. Roy had asked her if it was a problem but she just told him that she was a nice, quiet girl and that she liked the company.
Katie seemed to be nice and quiet but Edward thought about how stubborn she was when he was trying to get answers out of her the first day. He couldn't help but think that she was quite different than what people imagined.
She hadn't been able to talk for three days now. For someone would ask her simple questions like, 'How did you get here,' or 'Who is your dad,' or even 'What's your last name,' and she would burst into tears unable to speak of anything that reminded her of that night. Edward thought that there was a lot more than what she told him, Alphonse, and Mustang that first day. He also thought that she wanted to tell them all about it today.
While thinking of this, Roy had lyed his head down on his crossed arms and fell asleep. It was hard to see how that he cared about anything important. He was too laid back and lazy.
Edward looked at the Colonel and grunted but then his attention was re-directed to the opening door to his right. He looked up to see Hawkeye, and flanking her was Katie. Roy had gotten up and Edward was wondering when the hell that happened.
"Take a seat. Do you want anything to drink?" You could tell that Mustang was trying to make her more comfortable. Whether it was for his own needs of getting information or that he truly cared, Edward didn't know.
"No thank you," Edward's eye's shot open and Mustang stared for a minute but then covered up his surprise of her being able to talk like a normal human being.
Mustang nodded then walked back behind his desk and sat down in his chair. "So, where do we start?"
"I'm not sure. What do you want to know?" Katie asked. She seemed very open to being questioned, Edward cocked his head. He had a million questions to ask her, but he thought it wise to leave this up to Mustang.
"Well, let's start with your name and any other information about yourself that might help me," he told her in a cool calm voice.
"I'm Katie Isabella Stone, I'm thirteen. I live...lived in Germany with my father Henry. My mother died shortly after I was born, my father never remarried. My father is a scientist but works as a ticket sales man at the train station to make money that his studies do not. I've had schooling up to the age I am now, and I'm good at critical thinking," she finished. She must have played that out in her head many times for she wasn't out of breath or even breaking a sweat.
"So you are thirteen, like Edward here and you lived in some place called Germany with your scientist father?" Edward looked over to Roy thinking about how he could easily wrap up things to make then extremely simple.
"Correct," she told him.
"What did your father study?" Edward had hung onto that part of her 'speech' as well, and he was truly curious.
"Some science that didn't make it as time went on. When ever he would talk about it, it seemed more like some magic from a fantasy book than science. He would talk about equations and circles, and the human being able to transfer energy from then to the cirlce. I didn't really understand any of it to tell you the truth, so I wont be much help," Edward looked over at Roy with a 'I know what this is' expression only to have Roy's blank face staring back at him.
"The night your father made you stand in the circle, can you tell me what it was or draw any of it out for me?"
"All I remember is a circle with a bunch of different lines inside it with letters or I guess you could call them words on the lines," she told Roy. They both knew that her drawing it out wouldn't be much help at all.
"Can you repeat anything he said?" Roy asked.
"No, it was like some foreign language that hasn't been used for decades."
"What do you remember right before you were sent here?" He asked with a calm tone still.
"I remember dark purple and blue lights. It felt like a tornado. I remember seeing lightning even knowing we were inside," she thought for a moment. " And an archway.. There was an archway, it looked hand carved. I think it might have been a door, a really big door." She looked up at us staring at her. "Then, I don't remember. I woke up down the road from Edward and Alphonse's apartment and decided to hike up it to see if I could find somewhere for help. Theirs was the only place with a light on so I went it. To tell you the truth, I thought it was a hotel, not an apartment." She finished, looking down at her hands. "What happened to me?"
Roy took a deep breath then began to try to explain.
"We think you came through something called 'The Gate'. It's the passage between your world and ours. Edward here has had personal experience with it. It sounds like to me that your father was studying the science of Alchemy, or the use of Chemistry," He paused until she looked up. "You are on the other side of The Gate. And you are untainted so it would appear. It's amazing," he stated.
"Luck," Edward said while standing. "I'm going to go find Al and get something to eat," he told the Colonel and walked out. Roy new that something was on his mind... Something was definitely bothering him, But what?