April 4, 2008: Hello there, it is I, Asahi Minako. More recently (and commonly) referred to as "the Minako-baka". I started this story quite a while ago, as you can tell by the "published" date. And recently reread it, and found some absolutely horrific mistakes (mostly plot holes), and things that needed to be fixed in general. (Especially the immature author's notes…) So, I bring you the new and improved Mistake.

Previous (revised) author's note:

Okay, I'm well aware that I have not finished The Price Paid yet, but I was reading a challenge issued by (the ever fabulous) Neo Diji and an idea hit me. The challenge was 'What if Trisha discovered about Roy and Ed's relationship' (assuming they have one) and, as I before stated: an idea was born. So, this will be a multi chapter monstrosity with a magical time skip (or two… or three) somewhere in it, and there will be a lot of things I'll be inventing/touching on/writing about. So… fear how long this thing will be… And there may be a lot of skips between characters, so I apologize to anyone who gets super confused (but not to the ones who just get 'confused' those people don't matter :D).

Warnings: The inevitable Shounen-ai/boys love/malexmale romance; The inevitable swearing/cursing (this is Edward we're talking about here.); And also! This story would be impossible to tell without Original Characters. (I know, I know, the dreaded OCs) I'll try my hardest to keep the focus off of them. After all, this story is about Trisha and Edward. However, it's inevitable, I apologize beforehand.

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist © Hiromu Arakawa/Square Enix/BONES, and all of the other people involved. I'm not profiting from this at all, just having a little fun, expanding on the characters personalities a bit (well, a character), and writing something that could never, and would never happen in the FMA/HAGAREN universe. Carry on.

I would also like to ask that you please don't call my Original Characters Mary Sues just because they're original characters. If you want to insult them, do it constructively and give me a legitimate reason. I don't want to hear "Kameko is a Mary Sue, and I hate her!" or something like that, I want to hear, "Kameko is a Mary Sue because she -insert reason here-" Thank you.

And without further ado (thank God)

To Set the Stage: The time is directly before the death of Trisha Elric. (Completely unnecessary information, though, because you brilliant readers could figure that out on your own.)

Chapter I

Trisha was feeling weak, very weak; she was clinging to life with all she had. The brunette woman had already told her dear sons about the money their father had left them, and now, all she wanted was one last thing. "Edward, could you transmute your mother one last wreath of flowers? Your father used to…" She paused, and inhaled heavily. She had a feeling nobody else could see the figure standing at the foot of the bed. It was a terrifying thing, the figure was translucent, and wore a white version of a grim reaper's cloak. They didn't hold a scythe, though, but a tall silver rod with a multi pointed star on the top. She continued anyway, keeping her eyes on the figure "…make them for me, all the time, and-" She thought she saw a sad smile on the figure's face, but she didn't have time to ponder it, for the figure had already touched the star on top of the rod to her forehead. In the next moment, everything went white. She felt weightless, like she was floating. She was free of pain, and almost nothing seemed to matter. She could feel a cool refreshing breeze on her skin, although she had a feeling there was nowhere the breeze could have come from. She closed her eyes to relish the calming feeling, but no sooner than she had closed them she felt ground beneath her feet. She opened her eyes and gasped.

Before her was a massive golden gate. The walkway she stood upon seemed to be made of a very expensive white marble. She marveled at the very magnificence of the gate for a moment, before her green eyes caught sight of someone through the bars. The person waved their hand, and the gates slowly opened. There was a girl whose height suggested that she was about 12. She had wavy platinum blonde hair, large doe brown eyes, and wore a long white dress with gold trim on the hem and the bottom of the sleeves, and a thin gold sash around her middle. "Follow me" she said quietly, and began walking, Trisha close behind.

Trisha stared in awe at the sight behind the gate. The walkway was indeed white marble, and reflected the sun in a magnificent way. The path was lined with gold and white rosebushes, and beyond that was a well-kept grassy courtyard with many flowers growing in flowerbeds. On either side of the courtyard, there was a large elaborate marble fountain. She noticed many other woman and girls about the courtyard tending flowers and trimming bushes, and many people she didn't know enjoying the scenery. One person, though, caught her eye- a woman with long black hair, and eyes to match, with pale skin that contrasted greatly. Trisha recognized the woman to be Yura, the oldest daughter of Risembool's mayor. The brunette woman remembered hearing that Yura was quite sickly and had never recovered. She recalled attending the young woman's funeral over a year ago. Now, though, Yura appeared to be perfectly healthy. She wore a dress similar to the one the girl now leading her was, and when she caught sight of Trisha she gave a half smirk, half sneer. Trisha blinked; she had never known Yura to be a mean woman. The blonde girl who had been leading her looked over her shoulder, "Excuse me, ma'am" she called out.

Trisha blinked; she hadn't realized she had stopped walking until she looked ahead of her on the path to see the girl standing almost five feet ahead of her. "I'm sorry" Trisha apologized as she smiled, looking slightly embarrassed. She had been staring, how rude of her.

The blonde shook her head, "it's fine," she replied, a small smile on her face. Trisha didn't notice the evil glare Yura gave her before she continued following the small girl, who was leading her toward a very large building, which seemed to be made of the same marble as the walkway.

When they approached the large golden double doors at the front of the building, the girl pushed them open and looked at Trisha. "If you're ready to cross over, wait for someone to help you, and if you're not, when they ask, tell them you're not ready…" she said.

"Cross over?" Trisha asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"

The woman said nothing but ushered Trisha inside, then walked down a hallway. "Wait there" she said over her shoulder, then disappeared inside a room.

Trisha blinked and sat down timidly in a chair that was a part of what appeared to be a lavishly decorated lobby with Victorian style furniture in red and gold. There was a large chandelier overhead with dangling crystals. The brunette woman was in awe, she had never seen anything so elegant in her entire life, not even during the times she had visited Central City. She looked down at the red and gold carpet, and admired the design for a while before looking back up. A large mirror on one wall caught her eye. It startled her at first, however, because instead of seeing herself and the rest of the room in it, as a mirror should behave, she saw the Risembool graveyard. She gave it an odd look and walked over staring intently at the scene to appeared to be unfolding. Inside the mirror she saw a group of people who seemed to burying a coffin. She could see Edward and Alphonse crying, and many of the other people from Risembool. That was it then. She was dead. This must be Heaven, but then what did that tall woman mean by "crossing over"?

"Are you ready to cross over yet, ma'am?" a female voice bearing an odd accent she had never heard before asked.

Trisha tore her gaze from the mirror and focused on the girl behind her who had spoken. Her height suggested that she was only a child; however other features told her that she was much older. She had long golden blonde hair that brushed the back of her calves, and large golden eyes that reminded her of Edward's. She wore a dress similar to the one the other blonde girl and Yura were wearing. Trisha gave the girl an odd look, "What do you mean cross over?" she asked, though unfortunately, she had an idea of what it meant already.

The golden-eyed woman blinked, "They didn't tell you when you got here?" she asked. Trisha shook her head, and the woman sighed exasperatedly, "Cross over from the land of the living to the land of the dead…. Heaven…." She tried to explain.

"I wasn't ready to die." Trisha replied, quietly and almost disbelievingly.

"Awright then, Mrs.………" she glanced at the clipboard she held in her hand, "Elric." She said, "Your room is ready."

"You can call me Trisha," the brunette said, preferring hearing her first name to something so formal. She had always been a friendly woman, and never took well to formalities.

The blonde woman nodded firmly, and then turned on her heels motioning with her head for Trisha to follow her.

"I didn't catch your name…" Trisha said as the woman led her down the white hallways of the large building. She would have expected her voice to echo as if they were in the halls of a hospital or the sort, but it didn't. She could, however, hear the faint clicking of the short woman's heels on the floor.

The woman sighed in an amused way, "I'm Kameko." The woman replied, looking over her shoulder, and smirking, "It means child of the tortoise but it can be a symbol of long life…"

Trisha nodded in acknowledgement.

"And here we are!" the woman said, stopping in front of a solid gold door. Trisha looked at it in shock. "Don't be so surprised." The woman said in her odd accent. She placed her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow, "this is the crossroads between the world of the living, and the afterlife." She spread her arms apart to gesture to the large hallway, "it's even more impressive over there." At Trisha's confused look, she clarified, "The afterlife." Trisha nodded, in a confused way. Kameko looked over her clipboard quickly "Um…. Jordan will be here to fill you in on the details soon." She opened the door for Trisha, "Now, I must get going," she said, flipping to the next page. "Lot's of things to do…" she waved and turned on her heels, walking back down the hallway.

Trisha turned toward the doorway, and walked inside. She stared in awe at the room. It was as lavishly decorated as the lobby she had been in earlier. On one half of the room was a queen-sized bed with a gold painted bed frame, and red and gold bedding. The other half had a red Victorian style couch with gold woodwork, a matching red armchair, and loveseat, all positioned around a cherry wood coffee table. She noticed, at the other side of the room, a large window that reached from the floor to the ceiling and was decorated with red velvet curtains. She walked over to the window and looked outside. She surveyed the well-kept courtyard below with the large fountains. She saw a few women running around dressed in similar outfits to the one Kameko and the other two were wearing, and quite a few people who looked normal, as far as she could tell. And the grass outside was so green that it seemed unnatural.

"Yo!" a rather deep, but distinctly feminine voice greeted from behind her. Trisha whirled around to see what she thought, at first was a boy, lounging on the sofa, however, upon further inspection; she decided the person was female. She had very short brown hair that reminded her a bit of Alphonse's, olive green eyes that sparkled with amusement, and she was rather…. Busty. She didn't wear the long dress Kameko and the others wore, but instead, she wore a pair of tight fitting white pants that flared out at the bottom, bearing the same gold trim, and a tight white shirt that exposed a fair amount of her midriff. She would have scolded the woman for such an indecency, but she assumed that if this was the crossroads, the woman was probably older than she was. The new brunette grinned widely, "I'm Jordan." She said. Trisha was about to say something, but Jordan interrupted her. "Trisha Marie Elric, died at age 30 from a rather nasty illness, housewife married to Hohenheim Elric, two sons Edward age 9 and Alphonse age 8." She stated, "And quite beautiful if I say so myself." She added at the end.(1)

Trisha stared in surprised, "How did you…?" She couldn't even finish her sentence.

"How did I know?" Jordan asked, "This is the crossroads between the world of the living and the afterlife. We keep files on you." Before Trisha could get a word in, the other brunette went on, "I'm here to fill you in on what's goin' on here, since you've chosen not to cross over just yet." Trisha nodded as a signal for her to continue. "Have a seat," Jordan said, gesturing to the chair across from her, which Trisha took. Jordan sat up, interlacing her fingers together, "So… Where to begin?" she asked herself then paused for a while, "Okay. You're dead." She said bluntly.

Trisha nodded absently. She already figured that part out, but it was still taking a while to sink in. "I should have known when I saw Yura here," she replied, almost dazedly.

Jordan made a disgusted look, "don't much like that woman…" she muttered, then continued, "Anyway you're at the crossroads between the world of the living and the afterlife, Heaven, or Hell… depending on how you lived… Kameko tells me that you're not ready to cross over. Is this because you're in denial or something?"

"I don't know." Trisha replied, "I wasn't ready to die and leave my sons alone and…" she trailed off. The thought of her sons left alone without their mother hurt her.

Jordan looked at her sadly, "I'm sorry…" she said quietly, and then perked up a little, "Anyway, you can stay here for as long as you like, until you're ready to cross over."

Trisha nodded, but then a question hit her, "can I see them?"

"Who? Your sons?" she asked, at Trisha's nod, she quickly replied, "I'm sorry, I can't let you, it's not allowed. You understand I hope."

Trisha nodded silently, though she couldn't help but wonder what she would do here without her sons to take care of, or the house or anything like that. Then she started to wonder, if this was the crossroads between life and death, and Heaven and Hell, couldn't somebody condemned to Hell just stay here for eternity.

"No." Jordan replied, before Trisha even asked.

Trisha looked at the brunette in mild surprise, "Yes, I can read your mind." Jordan said, "But only when I feel like it…. Anyways, only people who can go to Heaven are permitted to stay here until they're ready to cross over. Souls condemned to Hell are sent straight there…. After we make the proper arrangements…" She then looked up, "anything else you wanna know?"

Trisha nodded, realizing she had one more question. "I wanted to know what that mirror I saw in the lobby was, and why I saw Risembool in it."

Jordan smiled, "That's the 'Window to the Living' as we call it… It provides a window from here to the world of the living that you came from. It only works at the time of your funeral or a little after. And only you can see the scene you saw. If another person who died at the same time as you looked in the mirror at the same time you did, they would see their funeral and you would see yours."

"What do you mean 'world of the living that I came from'? You make it sound like there's more than one world…"

Jordan smiled, "That's because there are, Mrs. Elric! There are thousands of different worlds! And you are from one of many. But honestly that's not important now because I have to go. If you have any other questions, pick up the phone over there and dial zero once, 'kay?" and then she was gone… She didn't use the door or anything, and she didn't fade away, she was just…………………….. Gone…… how odd… Trisha concluded that staying here would most certainly be…. interesting.

Last revised: April 4, 2008

Comments:

(1) Do I know if Trisha's middle name is Marie? Nope. Not a clue. It sounded nice, though, didn't it?

Reviews are appreciated, if you have anything to say. Constructive criticism is great. It's also lovely just to hear someone say something like "hey, I like this story, write more" But I won't demand reviews, because if I did then I'd be a huge hypocrite. But it's nice to know who's reading and how they like it, of course you all understand. :)

-The Minako-baka