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AAAAAHHHHGG!!!! Okay, I aploigize to all the people that suffered my horrible, HORRRIBLE formatting on this story. I really didn't know just how bad it was. So, I went thru and reformatted it, I hope the spacing is better now.

This was my first story, so I didn't really know what I was doing, but I'm learning, and I didn't realize just how much I didn't know what I was doing until people started begging me to put some spacing in because they kept accidentally reading the same line over because they couldn't tell where they were at.

Well, please enjoy, and review. There will be a better story after this.

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I woke one day to a loud explosion outside, followed by countless shouts that I was pretty sure were commands from the Generals and Officers. I sat up for a moment listening to the shouting, hoping that I could make sense of some of it. After a few minuets I got bored and I lay back down with a flop. Staring up at the ceiling I began thinking. Its come, it finally has come. The war has finally spread all the way to us. I thought I would cry and start panicking, but I didn't. For some reason I saw no use in that action. "Hm..." I grinned and as I sat up I thought to my self If this had happened to me a few years back, I would have freaked out. I stretched and decided to get up considering that there was no chance of me going back to sleep with all of that noise out there.

I went downstairs to get a glass of milk and on the counter was a bunch of books and papers with horrible drawings of transmutation circles. Yeah those were mine, my dream spread out on the counter waiting for me to join it again. The moment I started studying Alchemy I knew that it was impossible for it to be real. "Fullmetal Alchemist is just a cartoon" I said in a mocking yet truthful voice. "Sigh and so is Alchemy" I hung my head and shuffled my feet to put the milk away. I took a sip of my milk and began thinking why I was here again? Oh yeah, my mom was a world famous singer, uhg in my dreams. She was more of a Local Legend, but none the less a great singer. We were here because she was on her Jazz tour, and she thought that it would be a good idea to tour in Japan. Damn was she right! A lot of people like Jazz out here, and the fact that she's a red head only add to her stage presents.

So then there's me, her strange 14 year old daughter that believes in Alchemy. I began swirling my milk around then I finished of the last bit of it. Just then there was a gentle knock on the door. I knew that knock had come from small hands which meant it was probably my friend Sakura. I peeped out the blinds and saw a short little girl waiting eagerly for the door to open. I opened it up and said "Hey Sakura!" I stepped out of the way so she could come in.

"Hi how are you Raven?" she said setting down her bag on a stool in front of the counter. Sakura was sort of my Alchemy study partner. She was around 12 years old and sometimes I think that she believes in Alchemy more than me. "Okay," Sakura said pulling out a pack of chalk and a brown paper bag that I was pretty sure had this broken pendant in it that she showed me a few weeks back. Then it dawned on me that day was the day we planed on making our biggest break thru, to use Alchemy. I had been preparing for this for two years.

"Hm..I see you got everything." I said grinning "Yep. Now I'm pretty sure...yeah this is it...well wait..." Sakura went on mumbling as she shuffled thru the brown paper bag. "Uh you need help?" I asked. She continued mumbling what now sounded like she was lightly cursing at the chains she was untangling. "...Nope...I.. Got it! O.K. so you practiced drawing the transmutation circle right?" Sakura said pulling out the rest of the necklace out of the bag. "Yep, and I remember all the ingredients of the pendants metal so don't worry." I said as Sakura handed me a piece of chalk.

"What are you guys doing?" said a voice from the stairs "Uh just trying to draw out the transmutation circle so we can conduct some simple Alchemy" I said hoping that my mom would be cool about it. My mom came into the room obviously dressed to go out somewhere. "Alright well don't loose any limbs, okay?" She said crouching down to kiss me on the forehead. "Sigh Mom that's only with human Transmutation!" I said giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Where are you going anyway?" I finally asked her. "Well I'm just gonna go to grocery store. We're running a little low on food supplies." she said as she grabbed her car keys. "Wait mom you can't go! There's a lot bad stuff going on out there" I said jumping up. "I'll be fine, don't worry." She said smiling sweetly. I was shocked " But mom you could get killed out there! Now we have enough food for now and they said on the news that tomorrow things wouldn't be nearly as bad. Just wait it out please!" I said almost begging. "Okay first of all no one is gonna kill me, okay? I'll be fine. I'll back in an hour so behave" My mom walked out the door, and I stood there wondering if in an hour she would walk back in those doors. Or if that was the last time she would ever be in this house again.

"Don't worry Rae, she'll be fine." Sakura said trying to comfort me. I dipped my head for a moment then I looked up and sat back down on the ground. "Your right, she'll probably be fine. Besides we have something important to do" I said as I finished the Transmutation circle. "Alright, necklace?" I held my hand out to Sakura and she put the broken necklace in my hand. I carefully placed it in the center of the transmutation circle and I sat there for a moment. This is it, I really hope it works I put my hands on the circle. There was a lot of gold light but I continued concentrating as hard as I could. There was a blue flash of light that rendered me unable to see for a second. I looked down in front of my hands and saw the necklace...Good as new...

"ALRIGHT!!" I yelled "Ha Booya!" Sakura said giving me a high five. Suddenly there was a bang on the door. I was about to say who is it but then the door busted down. I instinctively stood up and kept Sakura behind me. There stood a Soldier with a shotgun. I have never been more scared in my life but I thought to myself, stay sharp don't cower make sure you and Sakura leave this place alive, the man stood there glaring at me.

I put on the toughest face I could and said, well more like yelled "Hey! Who are you and why the hell are busting in here like-" I was interrupted by two gunshots followed by a scream then a burning pain in my left shoulder. "Uuuuhhh..." Damn this hurt, I've never been shot before. Man I could die right here. I grabbed my shoulder and stood my ground, I wasn't about to let him do that to Sakura.

Then I heard another one of those incoherent commands from a General or Officer that managed to get the soldiers attention. Then he lifted the door off the ground and before he put it up he said "Have a good day ma'am" I was so outraged I couldn't see strait "Y-You Bastard!" I screamed at him. I couldn't stand anymore, I fell to my knees. I then crawled over to the wall left of the door and leaned back. "R..Raven?" Sakura said traumatized with a little blood on her. I smiled at her weakly and said "I'll be alright, the last thing I'm gonna do is die here...Nnnygghhh" I grabbed my wound tighter, I couldn't believe it. This the most I have ever bled since I wreaked my bike a few years back.

Sakura sat down next to me with paper towels a few wet wash rags and a big towel. She began washing my wound without saying anything. It burned but the cold water was sort of soothing. She cut a big chunk out of the towel just big enough to wrap around my shoulder "...Thanks, Sakura" I said. Sakura looked up from tying my shoulder and said "..No problem" Just when she finished tying up the towel someone busted in the door again. For a moment all I saw was a blur of someone really big in something solid blue, and someone much smaller obviously wearing red. They both put the door back up in a hurry. The person in red said "Whew, man that was close. What are they tryin' ta kill us?"."Well brother that wouldn't really shock me." The larger one said. Then I realized that the bigger one was in armor and judging by their voices they're both boys...Wait a second here. Turning with his eyes closed towards me the shorter boy says "Aww jeez what did we ever do to them?...Hm?" Just then the boy noticed that I was staring at him in disbelief. Holy shit! Its Edward Elric I thought to myself.

There was quite a silence for a while there as Ed and I stared at each other. "I do not believe this..." I said. Ed looked away and said "sigh Oh boy here we go" He looks over to me seeing that I am staring at him. He got annoyed "WHAT THE THE HELL ARE YOU STARING AT?! YOU GOT A STARING PROBLEM OR SOMETHING?!" I looked away and began "...Well" Ed interrupted me, tipical him still yelling "Look we're sorry that we barged into your home but if you had a bunch of maniacs shooting at you trust me you would do the same!" I was still staring blankly at him because I was still pretty shocked that an anime character was standing right there in front of me...Well, telling me off. We stared at each other again for two seconds then Ed got annoyed again. "GRRRRRR! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!" Then I got annoyed, I was sitting there bleeding which he was obviously failed to notice, and he was gonna stand here and yell at me for no reason? Oh this meant war.

"YEAH WELL IT'S KIND OF HARD NOT TO LISTEN TO YOU BECAUSE YOU SO GODDAMNED OBNOXIOUS!!" I didn't realize it but I had been standing up so Ed seemed closer to eye level. Ed sort of looked puzzled possibly by the fact that I had just yelled at him and he wasn't used to that kind of reaction. I wasn't done yet though "And maybe YOU'RE the one who has the problem! Don't go taking it out on me the fact that you're going to be an obnoxious bratty MIDGET FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!!" Al looked very worried at this point and so did Sakura, they both knew how Ed got whenever hes' called short, or a midget.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MIDGET HUH?!!?! WHY I OUGHTA..." I interrupted him and said something that I probably would regret for the rest of my life. "Why you outta nothing! You know you can't possibly hit a girl like me!" I'm grinning now, knowing that the most he is capable of doing to me is yell so I decided to have a little fun with this. "GRRRRRRRR. DAMN YOU!!!" Ed yelled getting more riled up by the second.

"Brother, calm down, okay? She's' just trying to get a rise out of you." Al said quietly to Ed. Ed dipped his head fuming. He calmed his self down and when he looked up his eyes fell upon my bandage that obviously needed changed now. "Y-Your bleeding" Ed said, I looked at my shoulder and said "Oh yeah this happened a few minuets ago." Ed looked at me for a moment almost worried, he then said "Wait what you mean a few minuets ago?" Wait a second is this the same guy? I thought. "Um, I don't know about 15 minutes ago. We started fighting and well I kind of forgot all about this" I said pointing to my bandage. Ed and Al looked at each other, Al said "That's a lot of blood for 15 minutes, the bandage is almost completely soaked" Jeez they were right, and this was a towel two!

"Uh, is that a bad thing?" Oh my god could I look anymore stupid, Ed began yelling again "Wha-Of coarse that bad! DO YOU REALIZE HOW MUCH BLOOD YOU'RE LOOSING!?" Al then said "Ed calm down! "Uh where your-" Before he could finish Sakura said "Follow me". Ed and Al looked at each other for a moment then they followed her upstairs and I sat back down on the floor where I was before. I couldn't believe this, Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric were in my house. This had to be a dream I thought to myself, but later I found it wasn't.

:CRASH:BOOM:stomp:stomp: "Oops, sorry." "Aw dammit Al!" "I'm sorry!" "Gah. Its alright, at least you didn't break all of-" "Ed could you please not jinx us". I began to giggle hearing all that was going on upstairs. Damn Ed has some serious mood swings, he's' trying to be sure that I live but it didn't seam like he wanted me to live a few minutes ago. Hmph what a nut.

So could this day get any more weird? First I finally use Alchemy, then I get shot in my left shoulder, and now Ed of all people is putting a bandage on me. Jeez what's next Ed finished tying the bandage and I noticed that he had a bandage on his left arm. I was about to ask him what happened to his arm but Just then MORE people bust in...again...Only this time it was Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, and two soldiers. Before anybody could say anything and before I could stop myself I said "Okay, what the hell is with people busting in my house all of the sudden" Roy ignored me and said "Edward, we've been looking for you" Ed stood up as he said "Yeah, why is that?" Riza quickly responded "We came here because we heard you were having trouble...Hm?" Riza looked at me then over to Sakura who quickly hid behind Al.

I watched Sakura run thinking Idiot "So who is this?" Riza asked "Oh! Uh..." Ed said looking at me. That's when I realized that I never really introduced Sakura or myself. I quickly said "My name is Raven and this- heh, hold on." I stood up walked behind Al who seemed a bit embarrassed and dragged out Sakura who was red in the face now. I pulled her up to where I was standing before and said "...And this is Sakura"

"Heh heh, Hi." said Sakura realizing that it wasn't necessary for her to go hide behind Al. Roy smirked and said "Well I suppose these two girls are here with you Fullmetal?" Ed looked over to Roy and said "Well actually these two girls were already here, sir." While this is going on Riza is staring me down like crazy and it began freaking me out. Finally she said "Your last name wouldn't happen to be Aspen would it?" Before I could say anything Roy said "Lieutenant, you don't possibly think that-" Riza interrupted him "I am only asking" Then I began to think if I said anything I would interrupt "...Um, yes. My last name is Aspen" I said cautiously hoping that I wasn't about to be suspected as a criminal. "Well if that's the case then I'm afraid we may have some bad news." Roy said sadly. Ed began to seem upset as well, I was getting really worried.

Riza began "Earlier there was a woman who was killed who had that same last name." I gasped, my heart sank all the way to the earth's core. "...No..." I said almost in a whisper. "Edward was there but he was alone and outnumbered by a gang..." Looking down at the floor I was in shock "I can't believe it, my mom was killed... by gang members" Ed seemed to become even more tense and I may know the reason. He almost looked like he was bracing himself, like a dog that knew it did something wrong and was waiting for its punishment Oh Ed you didn't do any thing wrong! "I'll have you know we did every thing that we could" Riza said "...Well at least Edward did" I saw what Riza was trying to do, she trying to tell him its okay but he won't listen.

"...I...Tried..." Ed began in a shaky voice "I tried to tell those...stupid damn...soldiers...they wouldn't listen..." That's when I realized Ed was crying. "...They wouldn't...Help me...Those stupid morons wouldn't.. Help...Me" Ed said clenching his fists. "That's why you have a bandage on your arm isn't it." I said to him.

"...You got hurt...trying to fight them off" I began walking over to him until I was right in front of him. I saw part of his face, he still seemed scared but of what? I couldn't think of anything else to say to make him feel better. Then I hugged him not exactly knowing what I was doing. I then said "Thank you, for doing all of that just to save my mom" Then for the first time I finally started crying about my mom. It probably wasn't a good idea to be crying into his arms when he barley knows me. Before I had a chance to pull my self off of him he began hugging me back. Then I found my self crying ever harder, I sort of felt bad but that feeling for some reason didn't last long. At this point everyone was either silent or slightly crying, or baling like Sakura and I were.
A moment of mourning for my now dead mother, in the arms of my favorite cartoon character.
Wow, this has been quite an odd day.

End Chapter One