Prologue - The Identity Thief

White.

That's all he could see when he looked around. There was nothing around, just a huge, white void. That's what scared him the most. He had been sitting here for about ten minutes and nothing had changed, jumped out, not even appeared. It was just.. White. Where he was, he had no idea. Ten minutes ago he had woken up in this strange place. His head hurt, to the point where it had hurt to sit up. At closer inspection of his clothes, he found that they had been ripped and torn in the sleeves, and to his complete shock, half of his signature brown jacket was missing, torn off at the left side up to his armpit. His body held numerous cuts and bruises, and on his side was a huge gash that stretched from his abdomen to his lower chest. But the strangest part, something he couldn't figure out, was that he felt absolutely no pain from these wounds. The only thing he could feel was his raging headache. This was surreal to him, and after thinking about it, only one possibility came to mind.

"Dear God, am I dead..? Come on, I can't be dead yet, I'm only sixteen!" His enraged voice filled the room, blue eyes flashing in sudden realization. There was no way he was going to accept this. It was impossible. Not allowed. Absolutely not. He could not be dead. There was so much more he had to do! "Let me go back! Where the hell am I anyway?" Getting no response, he snarled, yelling out into the empty space. "Will someone please tell me where the hell I am?!"

"I won't answer that.. But I will tell you that you aren't dead. Not yet, anyway."

He flinched and spun around in surprise, not actually expecting someone to respond to his request. To his shock a large door had appeared where there had once been nothing, and before it, a strange, white being. It had no eyes, and no physical body, only an outline, and a large, toothy grin. "Hello."

The sixteen year old blanched, staring at the figure that had just greeted him like there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary going on. He was so startled, he actually stuttered a greeting back. "S'up?" He had to clear his head for a second before following with what he really wanted to say, "Who the hell are you?"

The figure seemed elated at the question. It threw its hands in the air, it's grin widening even more, if that was possible. "Oh! I'm so glad you asked. I'll spare you the many details. You can call me the Truth. I am God. I am One. I am all. And I am also-"

"Me." The boy cut Truth off. "I can't remember how I know that.. I guess I just do. Well then, Identity thief, what are you going to do with me now?"

Truth looked slightly annoyed that it had been interrupted, giving the teenager a sudden rush of satisfaction. Its smile appeared again however, and the satisfaction disappeared as it spoke again. "Well, aren't we an impatient one.. Very well, i'll tell you.. You're here for a special reason. Normally your kind aren't allowed in my domain.. Yet you performed an act that brought you here. Tell me, boy.. Do you remember what that act was?"

Well, that was tough considering he had lost most of his memory. The boy thought hard about the question. He had scars all over his body, his skin was burned.. Did all that have some sort of connection to all this? It had to. There was no other explanation. So then, where had he gotten all of these wounds.. What act had he made to get them, and somehow get here? No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't remember.

He was about to say this out loud, but Truth cut him off before he could. The being smirked. "Let me ask you a different question.. What is your name?"

Once again, the boy was stumped. That's right, he hadn't even thought about his name since he had gotten here. What was his name again? It seemed like so long since he had used it.. "Noah... My name is Noah."

That must have been the correct answer, since Truth kept grinning. "Very good. Now.. What else do you remember?"

'What else do I remember..?' His name was Noah. He was sixteen years old. He was in a place he knew from somewhere.. Yet he felt like he hadn't actually been here before. His body was covered in scars. It was covered in burns.

Burns.

That was important.. But for what reason? Noah couldn't figure it out. He wanted to know suddenly. He wanted to know at all costs. And most importantly, he wanted to know right now. He turned back to Truth. "Give me one more hint. Please.. Anything will do. Im so close."

Truth's grin grew bigger still. "Very well.. I'll just take a little more as your toll for that. Your hint is.. 'SFIT.'

To anyone else, that would have been the most obscure hint to ever have received.

But as soon as Noah heard the name of the institute, his memory hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Fire! Fire at the Institute! Someone send help immediately!"

Noah had ran towards the burning building, his gaze wild with terror. Everywhere people were fleeing from the rising flames. They screamed, cried, shouted at each other to do something about it. The fire department hadn't arrived yet, but Noah could hear them quickly approaching from the neighboring boulevard.

Someone ran past him, then stopped short. The stranger grabbed his arm, shaking him. "Are you an idiot, boy? Get out of here! This is no place for a kid to be hanging around right now."

He should have ran. He should have listened to that man.. But something kept him rooted to the spot. There was something important in that building. Something that, if he ran, he would never see again.

He had to get that thing. He had to save it.. He had to save her.

The next thing he knew, Noah was racing into the burning building. The building itself was in rough shape. The flames had risen from the bottom floor, as the fire had started in the basement, and were now progressing through the third floor of the building. The first floor was collapsing in on itself, and fire coated every wall in the place. To make it worse, the smoke was thick and unbearable. Noah's lungs constricted with each step he took. He hadn't had the time or sense to get something to cover his mouth from the smoke, so he was completely vulnerable.

Noah headed for the stairs to the second level. Coughs wracked his body nonstop, and dear God, it hurt. It hurt much worse than any beating he had gotten in his life, it almost felt like he was drowning. He fell to his knees at the top of the stairs and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a bit of the ceiling that crashed to the ground beside him. For a minute he paused,desperately trying to get some air into his body. He found none, but powered forward on his hands and knees. He could see the room where his parents worked. Just a little farther.. He just needed to get a little farther..!

The building suddenly rumbled and shook. The flames roared, stopping Noah in his tracks. Pieces of the ceiling rained down on him, beams in the room began to crumble beside him.

Noah was out of time and he knew it.

Making a last ditch effort to get to the office, Noah forced himself to his feet and lunged across the burning floor. He cried in pain as flames lapped at his skin, and pieces of the building tore at his body. His blood left a trail to the office door, leaving him lightheaded and stumbling to reach the door handle. When he finally grasped it, ignoring the superheated metal, he flung it open.

There cowered his prize, in the far right corner. A small girl, barely three. She had long, chestnut brown hair that fell to her lower back. She had wide, icy blue eyes, matching to Noah's own, that were even wider than normal in fear and pain. Her darker skin was charred and burned on her legs, and her little pink skirt had been singed and burned off at one side.

Noah reached towards her, calling to her to come closer. The little girl was too terrified to move, however. She shook her head and sobbed, begging him to come for her, to take her away from the scary building. Well, if that's what it took to save her, Noah would do just that.

He took one step forward.

And the building roared its disapproval.

The last thing Noah remembered was the office door barreling down on his chest, and a little girl screaming his name in terror.

".. Yep. I'm so totally dead."

Truth cackled. "Well, that depends on your point of view. In your world, yes. You are, as you put it, "so totally dead." Here, however, you have a bit of a choice. You possess an item that I find valuable. If you trade that item to me.. You'll find yourself with another chance at life.. And another chance to see that girl of yours."

That got his attention. Noah looked straight at Truth. "I'll do it. What do you want?"

"Most impatient, aren't we? Very well. I want that jewel that's in your pocket."

Noah blinked. He shoved his hand in his left pocket, pulling out a small red stone. He looked at Truth skeptically. "This old thing? It was made by some weird chemist in the labs at SFIT.. The man became a lunatic, so my parents broke the stone in half and gave both my sister and I a piece.. What do you want with it?"

Truth smirked. "Truly pathetic how naive you humans are.. Just give me the stone

.. Or.. No. Better yet. You keep the stone.. And we'll turn this into a game of hide and seek per say."

"Now you're going crazy. What the hell do you want with me? What hide and seek game?"

Truth suddenly stared at him. His expression deadpanned. He didn't even grin. Noah felt a cold chill run down his spine. This wasn't good.

Truth spoke in a cold voice. "One world will connect to the other. One link will be provided. Only when Kin is connected with Kin will these two world's join together, and only one will return."

Noah stared at Truth. "Okay.. That doesn't seem too hard.."

Truths grin suddenly appeared again. "Oh, but it's not that easy. You're not getting off the hook quite yet. Your toll still hasn't been paid. Your ticket through the door was the stone. Your ticket for the extra information however.. Has not been paid for yet. What was it you called me before? Oh yes.. An 'identity thief.'"

Noah felt his stomach drop. Lightning suddenly flew through the room, reaching for him. He screamed like a little girl and turned tail for the opposite direction. But the lightning was quick. It enveloped his body, and with an angry crackle, attacked his face. Noah screamed in agony and fear, clawing at his own eyes, trying to get the horrible, shocking substance to go away.

Truth's laughs echoed in the background. "This is what you get, young man, in exchange for a second chance. Its the law here.. Equivalent Exchange. Your previous identity is no longer yours. It is mine now. The damage to your face was to seal the deal. Your name is no longer Noah Rishimane. Whatever new name you choose is up to you. What you choose to do with yourself in your new home is your choice as well. However... Beware. Without your stone, and your soul.. The link cannot be activated."

Noah fell to his knees in silent submission, his hands still protectively cupping his now ruined face. From somewhere he heard the odd sound of a door opening, and felt himself being lifted into the air by what felt like many tiny creatures. Despite how weird and dangerous this seemed, Noah refused to open his eyes. Wherever these creatures were taking him, he would go without a care. He knew his life was over anyway.

He had lost his family. His sister was alone in his old world. His parents had died three years prior.

He had lost his home. His beloved school of technology had burned to the ground. He had even lost his entire world, his existence.

And now, he had lost even his name. He couldn't call himself Noah anymore. So what else was there to live for?

The link. He had to live for the link of the two worlds. Maybe then, he could get himself home.

As the Door of Truth closed behind the nameless boy, he could only think of one thing to say.

"Be strong.. Tara."

Helloooooo!

Its been so long guys. I'm so sorry for keeping everyone waiting.

But guess what? Its finally here! The rewrite everyone's been waiting for!

I know I have some explaining to do. For a long time, I've been stuck on this story. I always knew where I wanted it to go, but I felt as though I needed more of a hold on the plotline, so it wouldn't go completely haywire. I also felt as though a lot of things were just kind of thrown in there and never explained. So I decided to rewrite a bit of this. This prologue is to give the readers of the original Pure more of an explanation of how Tara's journey started and what the motives behind it are. For those of you that are new to this story, there will be a lot more to explain.

Now I know none of this explains why I've been gone for almost three years. Well the most sincere answer I can give all of you is that I just simply lost all of my will and motivation to write, especially for FMA. there were a lot of changes in my life. I'm a senior in high school now, and it's been very hard to keep up with grades and the Healthcare career I'm pursuing. I've also gotten a boyfriend, and a new baby brother. Both of them are extremely important to me, so I've dedicated a lot of my time to caring for my family. On top of all of that, I now have a job, I'm working to get my license and I have my own family duties to fulfill.

So in short, I'm an EXTREMELY busy person. But i've been wanting to get this out to you guys who have been patiently waiting. So here we are!

My plan is to upload a new chapter every two weeks. If, for some reason, I miss an update, I'm probably busy with other things. Feel free to Private Message me if I'm late. I'll try to post something on my profile as well If it's an important reason that I haven't updated, and an estimated time for the next update.

Thank you so much to everyone that's stuck with me for all of these years. You guys truly are the best people ever! Special shout out to Clair Aragon who's stuck with me notably, you are the best! And thank you to everyone else! I look forward to serving you good chapters!

Remember to read and review this, please! Reviews make me smile!

Thanks again everyone! I'll see you all soon!

- CR, AKA, EeveeAlchemist