Seto Kaiba was late, and not fashionably either. His trademark white trench coat waved behind him as he walked briskly down the streets of Domino City. Of all the nights he could be late it had to be this one, the anniversary of the final duel. One year ago today Yugi Muto had dueled the Pharaoh Atem and won, allowing Atem to pass on into the afterlife. If you believed that ridiculous story, that is. Kaiba knew better, or at least he did at one time. Nowadays he wasn't so sure. So much had happened in years past, before the Pharaoh had left, that he had started to doubt himself. But now things were normal, no shadows, no stupid stories, nothing to contradict the natural world.
Except that he was late. He quickened his pace as he turned the corner and spotted the Game Shop a few blocks down. Lights shown through the small shop's windows letting him know that everyone else was already there. Only two blocks now. Then he could listen to Wheeler's grief for being late, and stand silently in the corner for the rest of the night.
Suddenly something caught his eye. He turned abruptly and was met with a dark alley, with a purple-black mass of shadows twisting and writhing within. It can't be! He thought, paralyzed. As quickly as they appeared the shadows were gone, accompanied by a flash of light from the windows of the Game Shop. Left in the alley was a silhouette, a tall figure with high spiked hair. As his eyes adjusted Kaiba could make out more details of the person. Blue leather pants and jacket, black boots and tank top, and around his neck an upside down pyramid hanging from a chain.
"It can't be you… You're gone, moved on, dead. Whatever you call it you can't be here."
"You never did believe in me Kaiba, and even now when I'm right in front of your eyes you deny my existence," came the deep voiced reply. "But it is me."
"Atem." Kaiba whispered.
"Al, can you bring me that book that Einstein just published?" Edward Elric called to his brother from his workbench in their laboratory. It had been a whole year since the two had been reunited after Roy Mustang had closed the Gate between Earth and Amestris, and they were close to finally ruining the Nazi Parties plans for a uranium bomb.
"Sure brother," replied Alphonse Elric from the other room. He came running in, short cut blonde hair bobbing. "Here you go."
Ed reached out to grab the book with his right hand, but suddenly recoiled, his face taking on a mask of pain.
"Brother?" Al cried, "Are you o- aah!" He screamed as he fell to the ground, writhing in agony.
"Al!" Ed cried above his pain. In front of his eyes his brother's body was morphing, bending, dissolving into nothing. "Al, no!" Ed's arm began to disappear as well, and underneath his pants he could feel his left leg doing the same thing.
"Brother!" Alphonse's cry faded out just as the last of his body disappeared. At the same time, a bright flash of light filled the room, and Ed blacked out.
Underneath Central City General Roy Mustang was sitting with his most trusted subordinates: Major Alex Lois Armstrong, Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, Warrant Officer Vato Falman, and Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc. Silence lay heavy over the vast cavern they sat in, as General Mustang simply sat and stared towards the center of the chamber.
"Boss," Havoc broke the silence. "It's been a year. I know you want Fullmetal and Alphonse back, but I think it's time to let it go."
Suddenly Mustang stood up, walking towards the transmutation circle that had been permanently carved into the floor three years ago.
"Something's about to happen, the air is shifting."
"I don't feel anything General," Lieutenant Hawkeye said, standing.
Suddenly the room was filled with a blinding flash of light. When it faded away General Roy Mustang was gone, and in his place four bodies lay on the floor.
"What have you done with General Mustang?" The words echoed through Yugi's head like a gong, causing the pain in his head to flare. Slowly he opened his eyes, only to be met with the barrel of a pistol, held by a woman in a blue uniform with her blonde hair pinned up behind her head. "I asked you a question, and if you refuse to give me any information than you have no further reason to live."
"W-wait," Yugi stammered. "I have no idea who this Mustang guy is, but I had nothing to do with it, I swear."
"And I'm just supposed to believe you? That you and your friends here had absolutely nothing to do with a high ranking officer disappearing at the exact same time you appeared?" the blonde haired woman scoffed.
Yugi looked back. Behind him, Ryou Bakura was lying on his side. Next to him, Mokuba Kaiba was splayed out, blood pouring from where his right arm used to be. But the only person Yugi wasn't expecting to see was the man kneeling at Ryo's side. His white hair hid a face that was eerily similar to Ryo's, but sharper, harder. On his chest was a ring of gold suspended on a string, with an eye set in a triangle in the middle. Small spikes hung around the edge of the circle.
"Bakura!" Yugi shouted at the young boy's evil yami.
"Weren't expecting me, were you little pharaoh?" the yami replied in his gruff accent.
"Quiet, both of you!" the woman yelled. "You're surrounded, there's nothing you can do."
Yugi noticed the other uniformed personnel around them. An older, silver haired gentleman, a young man with blonde hair and a cigarette in his mouth, and behind them a mountainous man with a mustache and a single bit of hair protruding from the top of his head.
"You'd better start talking," he said menacingly. "I know methods of interrogation that have been passed down through my family for generations!"
"We know nothing of what happened here," Bakura snapped. "Your precious general disappearing as we appeared is a mere coincidence."
"Who are you?" the man with the cigarette asked. "And where did you come from."
"My name is Yugi Muto; I'm from Domino City in Japan. These are my friends, except for him," he pointed at the evil Bakura.
"I've never heard of this 'Domino City'", the woman with the gun said.
"Lieutenant Hawkeye, I believe these youths may be telling the truth," the tall man said.
"Major the general has disappeared in an instant, and you'd like to trust these criminals?"
"Remember what happened a year ago?" the tall man asked her. "When the Elric brother's created that mess with the portal, the General said they had travelled to another world. It's not insane to think something similar has happened now."
"Fine," The Lieutenant lowered her pistol. "But any funny business and I'll kill them where they stand."
Yugi suddenly remembered his young friend. He ran to Mokuba's unconscious body, pressing his shoulder. "Please, help him, he's bleeding."
The tall man grabbed Mokuba under one arm and Yugi under the other and began carrying them towards a small tunnel leading out of the cave. Bakura, under the close watch of the other two uniformed men, lifted Ryo over his shoulder and began to follow.
"Alphonse!" Ed sat up fast, yelling his brother's name.
"Who's Alphonse?" A woman's voice asked.
Ed looked around and was surprised to find himself surrounded by people. To his left there were three men; one with shaggy blonde hair in a blue and white shirt, one with brown hair in a large spike in dark clothes, and the last with spiked black hair in a red vest jacket, earrings in his ears. To his right were a girl with shoulder length brown hair, and another woman with long blonde curls. In the corner sat the most striking person though. His yellow, red, and black hair was styled in tall spikes, and his blue leather outfit stood out among the others. Around his neck he had some kind of pendant with a stylized eye emblazoned on it.
Suddenly he was jerked to his feet by a man in a white trench coat with short brown hair. Some kind of machine was attached to his wrist.
"What did you do with my brother!?" He asked in a low gravelly voice. "Tell me where Mokuba is."
Ed shoved the man's arm away from him, taking a defensive stance. "I don't know anything about your brother. All I care about is where MY brother is."
The man lunged for him, and instinctively Ed's right hand shot up, grabbing his wrist. The action was met with gasps from the others in the room, and the color drained from Ed's face. His arm was no longer the flesh he had worked so hard for, but once again the cold steel of automail he knew all too well. Mentally checking himself over he could feel that his left leg too was once again solid metal. His grip slipped and he let the man go, recoiling at the newfound abnormality.
"How… How is my automail back?" he asked meekly.
"Brother…" came a hushed whisper from behind him. Ed turned, fearing what he would see. A set of bluish-silver armor was lying in a pile on the floor, a red glow in the eyes. Behind the headpiece, inside the back of the armor was a red circle with intricate lines drawn through it. Ed's mouth dropped open in shock as he realized what had happened.
"Brother, what happened? Why can't I feel my body? Am... Am I inside the armor again?"
Ed couldn't handle everything that had just happened. He looked again at his false arm, and then at the familiar suit of armor that was once again his brother's shell. The last thing he saw was the strange man in the corner stepping towards him before he blacked out.