Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to the amazing Hiromu Arakawa :)

I absolutely adore FMA, so I hope this fic does it justice!

Enjoy~

Will I?

The train slowed smoothly into the modest train station of Chartel, a town in the north-east of Amestris. Edward and his brother, Alphonse, stepped out on to the wooden platform and took in their newly discovered surroundings, never having visited the old town before in their long travels. The train pulled away from the station as Edward placed his worn suitcase on the floor beside him, the wind in its wake breezing past him lazily in the heat as he stretched his arms upward to work out the kinks of his back and flesh arm after being on the train for the whole morning. He proceeded to chase away the last dregs of sleep induced water from the corners of his golden eyes with the back of his gloved finger before turning to his younger brother.

"So, where do you want to go to first, Al?" Edward asked lightly.

"Hmm," the sound reverberated around the hollow suit of armour next to the teenager. "How about we just explore and see what takes our fancy?"

Edward smiled at himself. "Sure thing. We can get on to research a bit later."

It was nice to take a break from their military life once in a while to just enjoy themselves, away from Central, away from that damned Mustang's smug office and far away from the danger that was their life. At least that is what the Fullmetal Alchemist hoped, the pair of brothers had a habit of running into trouble when they least expected it. Rather, Edward was not very good at staying away from it. They could not stray from their purpose of visiting Chartel for long though, they had to search the local alchemic library archives and take another step closer to putting right the mistakes they had made in their past.

The Elric brothers weaved their way through the people on the platform to the exit of the station that lead to the main street of the town. Ed bounded ahead of Alphonse in his excitement to finally set his eyes on the first Amestrian town the Eastern Sage had set foot into, and the first town to ever experience and learn of the scientific wonder that was alchemy. A town he had only ever read about in books was right before his young eyes. It was those first experiences and the very words that the legendary Sage spoke that the studious brothers sought. Surely the penned hand of the Sage would unlock the answers they needed to get their bodies back? The teenagers could only hope. But, it was always that small hope that drove them forward.

Golden eyes widened in awe at the sight of the ancient town still standing, their owner forgetting everyone around him momentarily. Its landmark, sky reaching towers were littered across the landscape for those all around to see. Each stone tower had been standing for hundreds of years, serving as a permanent mark of the power struggles of the alchemists of old. Ed sighed at the thought that even back then alchemy served as a means for political gain.

Edward lifted his red cloaked arm to shield his vision from the sunlight gleaming off the town made of stone to gain a clearer view. A looming shadow moved to stand beside him, which helpfully blocked the bright rays.

The alchemist turned to see who had cast the shadow. "Oh, thanks, Al," he said looking up at his brother, choosing to lower his now unneeded shield. "It sure is handy on days like this that you're ta…," he paused abruptly mid-sentence, quickly averting his eyes away from his brother.

"What was that, Brother?" If Al had his human body, he would have been grinning.

Ed turned his head fully away from the figure and muttered toward the ground, "t-taller."

"I still can't hear you," the younger brother spoke with his voice full of jest. Alphonse knew exactly what Ed had said, having heard what he had spoken perfectly clearly, but it was a very rare occurrence for him to hear his older brother admit that he was short and he intended to fully enjoy the moment.

Edward's gloved hands fisted. "N-Nothing!" He shouted childishly.

The teenager whipped his head up and stalked off down the main street of the town, leaving Alphonse behind in front of the train station. He jogged to catch up with his brother a few seconds later, laughter resounding through his temporary body.

"What're you laughing at?" Ed bristled, pretending to have no memory of admitting to his height complex.

"Nothing," Alphonse practically sang.

Ed sent a pointed glare at his younger brother, knowing that he had purposely given him a taste of his own medicine.

"Fine." Ed said mutinously.

Edward could never become properly angry with his brother, no, he saved all of his stubborn irritation specially for that damnable superior he had to work for.

The golden haired boy and his suit of armour for a brother continued down the straight main road in comfortable silence, drinking in their new surroundings with vigour. People, both inhabitants and tourists, filled the space and air around them with pleasant chatter which created a calm and enjoyable atmosphere that was a nice mix between the bustling Central city and the complete peacefulness that their home town of Resembool was more acquainted with. It surprised Ed that Chartel was actually as mildly busy as it was, but then again it was probably the alchemy nerd within him that had always drawn him to wanting to visit the infamous town. He supposed that to the average person, this was just another town that was too close to the desert to make it worth a special visit.

Thinking of which made Ed let out a small grunt, breaking the serene silence between him and Al, as he grabbed his clothed right shoulder to rub it. "Why does it have to be so hot? I feel like my automail is going to sear a hole through my skin," he whined.

Al's head turned so that he could see his brother. "Well, we are near the desert here. We could go into somewhere for a bit, so that you can cool down?" He suggested.

Edward hummed in approval, "yeah, that sounds good."

The boys cast around to look for a place to rest for a bit when a low growl was heard from Ed's stomach, seemingly answering his unspoken question.

Al perked at the sound, laughing lightly at the noise. "To cool down and eat!"

"The café over there looks good," Ed responded, pointing to a small eatery a couple of shops ahead of them to the left.

With Edward's suggestion, the teenagers headed out of the gleaming sunlight that channelled down the centre of the road toward the café that was shaded by its two neighbouring towers. Figures were just exiting out of the glass door as they approached, they were wearing the blue uniform of the State Military and one of them looked oddly familiar…

"Hey, is that the Colonel?" Al asked with his voice trailing off in surprise, moving his arm to pat his brother on the arm to grab his attention.

Edward huffed irritably, instantly recognising that face and posture of superiority anywhere. He continued his pace toward the entrance of the café that they were steadily gaining on.

"Yeah, that's him alright. We finally get away from the damn colonel, but the bastard always has to be around."

"Aw, come on, brother. He's not that bad." The younger brother lightly chided.

The pair stopped just in front of the glass door, waiting for the small group of soldiers to actually come out of the entrance as they chatted amongst themselves, voices tinged with amusement.

They're taking long enough, Ed thought prickly.

The raven haired man, who headed the front of the military group, passed through the entranceway leisurely holding a take-away cup of coffee in his ivory gloved hand. Edward watched as Roy Mustang looked ahead of himself, knowing that the man had yet to recognise the two boys standing in close proximity and that he would be preparing himself to smile that sickly, calculating polite smile that he wore in front of strangers to easily gain their trust. The dark pair of eyes roamed from surveying the scene outside and met Ed's golden stare. A spark of recognition flashed, stopping the man in his light tread, surprise momentarily crossed his features with a widening of his dark eyes and a slight raise of his brows before he promptly rearranged them to be replaced with his usual professional mask. Mustang broke from the challenging stare down as he side stepped away from the café entrance, allowing his accompanying men to filter out of the small establishment to wait for him and his subordinate to have their exchange.

Mustang's mouth lifted into a small smirk while he stood in front of the brothers. "Hi, boys. Nice to see you so far out in this famous town."

"Hi, Colonel," Alphonse replied cheerfully.

The two engaged members of the greeting looked toward Edward for his response, only to find the teenager silently refusing to look in the Colonel's direction with his crimson clad arms crossed tightly together.

The alchemist's pointed ignorance only amused Mustang further. "Fullmetal," he prodded, turning his full attention on the small boy.

A short moment of silence followed before Edward lifted his gaze from to the floor to level with Mustang's.

"I'm surprised you stopped flirting with women long enough to read a history book," he took on an air of confidence in uttering his probing insult, grinning.

Mustang's smirk reached his eyes at the comment, taking the bait as he refused to let a good opportunity for a laugh to pass him by.

"You should know that women dig men who are intelligent, Fullmetal," the man jeered, his eyes glinting as he raised a brow and graced Edward with an arrogant smile.

Taken aback, the young alchemist blushed slightly at the insinuation behind the Colonel's words. Mustang grabbed Ed's embarrassed silence by the reigns before the teenager could unscramble his brains to think of a retort.

"What's this? The innocence of one of the most popular State Alchemist's in Central?" The man gaped in mock horror.

Edward shot daggers through his eyes at the bastard. "S-shut up!" He shouted, reeling. "At least I get my work done instead of fooling around all the time," the teenager quipped at the indignation.

One of the men from Mustang's company cleared his throat loudly behind them, catching the attention of the Colonel with a flicker of his eyes. Edward looked past Mustang to see that the other military men were starting to become fidgety.

They obviously have somewhere they need to be, Edward mused.

Mustang checked his State Certification pocket watch and slipped it back into his blue trousers. He leaned down toward Edward, taking advantage of the boy's momentary lack of attention. Ed whipped his focus back to the older alchemist, refusing to step back from the sudden invasion of his personal space, meeting the challenging action head on.

"Besides, the history of Chartel carries a nice message" the Colonel whispered just loud enough for Ed to hear, making the message strangely private, as the man paused to make sure he had the teenager's full attention. "I like how even the lowest towers can continue to be built upon, using all of the support they have, until they finally dominate over the previously commanding tower."

"I'm sure you do," Edward responded just as quietly.

It was the only response Edward had for the calculating Colonel. He watched as the man straightened himself from their briefly intimate scene, catching the purposeful glint in Mustang's dark eyes before he rearranged his features again into his well-practiced, charming mask. The young alchemist knew that Mustang was using the towers as a metaphor for his own quick rise to power through the military, after his performance in the awful Ishvalan Civil War hailed him a "Hero of Ishval" in the media, and of the man's aim of eventually toppling the place of the current Fuhrer, King Bradley.

Mustang motioned to his group with a smooth flick of his hand for them to leave, as the man himself started forward. The two brothers watched as the small group of blue clad men began to move as a unit away from the café. Edward locked eye contact with one of the men at the back, as he looked back to the two alchemists. The leering smirk the unfamiliar man gave him set the State Alchemist on edge. Ed was just about to march up to the man to ask him what his problem was before Mustang called out over his shoulder.

"Stay out of trouble, Fullmetal," he raised in a matter of fact tone.

Damn that Colonel, it's like he read my mind, Edward cursed inwardly.

"Hey!" Edward shouted, fully wrenched away from his annoyance at the companion to instead focus it Mustang. "I'm not your kid! I can do what I want," he voiced petulantly.

Edward heard the aggravating snicker, knowing that he had just played into the bastard superior's hands to get a laugh out of him.

"The coffee here is great!" The Colonel called out, no longer looking at the two brothers anymore. "See you later, boys," he waved backwardly in his wake, as he headed toward the tower on the other side of the street.

Both of the young alchemists stared after the group for a few moments, watching their retreating backs, before gathering themselves in remembrance of what they were at the café for.

Edward was the first to speak up. "Come on, Al," he said, shaking off his annoyance at the Colonel and the niggling foreboding feeling he had. "Let's get some food."

A short amount of time passed as the two travelling brothers sat in the café, while Edward gorged on his first meal of the day, as their journey on the train had not allowed them to stop off for long enough. They had been having a pleasant conversation about what they were hoping to discover in the depths of the library archives, which they had decided they were going to visit after Ed had his fill of food, before their chatter unfortunately turned onto the subject of the bastard again.

"What do you think the Colonel was here for?" Alphonse asked after a lull in their talking.

"I don't know, probably just for a meeting or something," Ed shrugged, completely disinterested in the subject of their superior. They had just seen him, damn it!

"Hmm," the suit of armour paused for a moment and he mused. "It seems a long way to come just for a meeting."

It was the sceptical tone in Al's voice that piqued the older brother's attention. Such a tone indicated that his younger brother thought that there was more to the situation than had previously met the eye. In the unfortunate circumstances of their past travels, the brothers had come to realise that their Elric intuition of ulterior motives usually proved to be right.

"What do you me-"

The sound of an explosion abruptly stopped Edward's question in its tracks. The once serene atmosphere outside of the café was shattered as screaming ensued. Ed's eyes widened and the two brothers jumped up at the chaos and hysteria quickly filling the main street. The two alchemists darted out of the café and into the scene, completely forgetting their lunch and Edward's suitcase in their wake. Smoke and dust clogged the air, causing Edward to cough while surveying the scene before him. People were running away from the tower that was across the road, exactly where the origin of all the smoke seemed to be emanating from.

Wait, wasn't that the tower the Colonel went into? Panic fluttered inside Edward's chest, but he quickly quashed it. The Colonel could handle himself.

"What's going on?" Alphonse questioned quickly, his voice heightened.

Ed's golden eyes darted around the wide street in an attempt to find a witness to what had happened. He ran toward a man who was standing, staring at the former entranceway of the tower opposite them. All he could see of the destruction was thick, orange tainted smoke exuding from inside the tower, hinting at the fire that raged within as a backlash of the explosion.

Alphonse stood swiftly behind him when Ed had reached the man, who upon a closer look was covered in dust and dirt. "Wait, Brother, he might be in shock."

"Hey!" The Fullmetal Alchemist prompted, half shouting at the dazed man. The teenager grabbed the man's arm when he did not receive an immediate response, causing the victim to startle. That is exactly what Al had wanted to avoid.

"What happened here? What caused the explosion?" Edward tumbled out his demands.

The shocked man's eyes, wide rimmed and glazed with fear, tentatively turned to meet Ed's face. "I-I don't know..." The man breathed, as if he had been holding his breath before that moment.

Edward released the man's arm, as he turned slightly away from the gaping tower to fully acknowledge the two alchemists, his eyes sliding upward to Alphonse's metal head.

"One moment," the man began, swallowing. "I was walking toward the entrance to the tower. The next… I was flung away," he whipped his arm backward to demonstrate the power and force of his removal, causing him to stagger back slightly. Fear was utterly palpable in his voice.

The two teenagers immediately examined the victim with their gazes to check for any obvious signs of injury, but he seemed to check out fine aside from the momentary balance issue.

"Thank you for your help, Sir." Al spoke peacefully. "You should get yourself to the hospital in case you have any injuries that we can't see."

"Okay."

At his dull reply, Alphonse spoke again worried about the man's mental state. "Are you okay to get there on your own?"

The younger Elric noticed movement beside him and he looked away from the man's tensed body briefly to see his brother wander toward the tower. Concern for his brother's safety away from him wriggled at the back of his mind. Not because Alphonse doubted Ed's alchemic ability, but more that he doubted his ability to stay out of life threatening trouble.

"I'll be fine, thank you."

The man's voice returned Alphonse's attention back to the person in front of him. The victim had sounded surer of himself and the teenager watched him slowly walk away, down the street and away from the explosion sight. Once he was sure that the man was far enough away, Alphonse promptly returned to face the direction that Ed had ventured to. But, he could not see Edward. The younger brother started forward, turning his head side to side. The dusty smoke had permeated more of the atmosphere since the brother's exchange with the man and it had made visibility more difficult, making it even harder to spot Ed. He was sure that the density of the dust would have made it difficult for him to breathe, if he had his human body. It was then that Alphonse noticed that it was quiet, too quiet for it to be the aftermath of an event which caused an explosion.

Alphonse hastened his search, worry spreading through him. "Edward!" The teenager shouted.

A second explosion sounded from the other side of the tower, followed almost instantaneously by crashing, alarming Alphonse. The ground shook and a new plume of smoke, and dust, rushed out of the gaping hole in the tower toward Al, causing him to lose his balance, but he managed to stay upright as he shielded his face from the air borne debris. The alchemist heard cracking and the crumbling of stone as it hit the ground around him. Alphonse lowered his arms, straightening himself as small stones clanged against his metal body. Fear gripped him.

"Alphonse."

Al heard his name called in the distance beyond him by the heart achingly familiar voice. A small figure rapidly emerged from the hole in the tower before him. Golden hair and a crimson coat sped toward him.

Relief flushed through the younger teenager. "Brother," he spoke.

Edward looked up then, distress etched into his features.

"RUN!" Ed bellowed. "The tower is caving in."

Alphonse stood stunned for a couple of seconds before Edward almost collided with him and grabbed his arm to get his brother moving. The older alchemist ran as fast as he could, Alphonse just barely behind his brother in their effort to get away from the crashing tower.

"What did you do?!" Alphonse accused.

"Nothing!" Edward's breath was coming hard and fast. "Like usual!"

"That's a lie! Why were you in there in the first place?" Alphonse did not want to take this time to berate his brother's foolishness, but to wander off into a tower in which an explosion had just happened was plain reckless.

"It's the truth." The teenager panted. "People were fighting."

A third explosion wrecked the atmosphere. The pulse emitted whipped past the two brothers, pushing them off their feet, as their bodies bowed and were launched away from the ground. Edward and Alphonse smacked into the cobbled street, forcing the air out of Ed's lungs. Dizziness swarmed Ed's mind and vision, as a high pitched buzz seized his hearing, making his head difficult to control when he lifted it away from the smooth stone floor that was now slicked with crimson.

"Brother," Ed heard faintly, the summoning call hardly registering with the alchemist.

Edward pushed his exerted torso off the ground, the supporting pillar of his flesh arm shaking with the effort while his automail arm was still strong and intact. Good. He sat up, turning his body to face the way him and Alphonse had been running to peer at the destruction.

"Ed," the teenager heard louder as the buzzing subsided. Anxiety tinged his brother's voice.

"Alphonse," he responded, somewhat numbly.

The suit of armour let out a sound of relief. "Thank goodness," he spoke, shaking his head slightly.

Edward looked toward the tower that had exploded. Smoke made the air thick, causing Ed to cough and breathe heavily. Cracking echoed throughout the atmosphere, puncturing it with each new snap of stone as the tower had begun to lean forward. Blood trickled into Edward's eye making him shut it and rub his face with his hands, smearing the crimson across his face. When he opened his golden eyes again, he focused harder on the explosion site. It looked as though the most recent explosion had come from the other tower across the street.

"There's something odd with the centre of the street between the towers," Alphonse stated, bewildered.

Edward narrowed his vision on the place Al mentioned. There was a dense blackness there and water seemed to be spurting up from it. Is that a… hole?

Edward looked up to the two damaged towers again to see that they were teetering toward each other, excelling at an alarming rate.

"They're going to collide," Ed whispered just loud enough for Alphonse to hear.

"We need to get out of here," Al replied with an equal amount of dazedness.

Snapping thundered around the two brothers and the ground shifted.

"Brother." Alphonse's voice raised, "the ground." Fear shook his tone.

Edward's eye flitted to the cobbled street to witness ragged fractures littering the floor from the dense blackness, spreading quickly toward them.

"Shit." Edward exclaimed. "The ground is going fall into the sewers."

The brothers both glanced at each other, both taking in their brother's identical alarm.

"Just run."

Edward and Alphonse scrambled up as the fractures began to reach them.

"Run!"

They ran for what seemed like only a few seconds before Ed stumbled. The combination of his probable concussion from colliding with the ground and the smoke making it difficult for him to breathe, hindered his ability to run. Alphonse rushed ahead slightly, but quickly noticed his brother's absence and grinded to a halt.

"Don't look back! You have to keep running." Ed's voice was filled with urgency and panic, as he looked behind him at the rapidly advancing fractures.

Before Alphonse could reply with his 'hell no, never in a million years would I leave you behind', Edward started forward again.

But, it was too late.

The cobbled street lowered slightly and Edward took one last, fearful look at his younger brother before the street collapsed from underneath him, separating the two brothers at the fault line where the old cobbles met the concrete of the New Down Town.

"Alphonse!"

"No! Brother!" Alphonse bellowed, running and dropping next to the ragged divide in the street as he gripped the edge with a death embrace.

"Brother! Brother!" Alphonse's voice cracked with utter terror, his calling echoed into the broken sewer feet beneath him.

Alphonse could not see anything in the blackness of the destruction.

A/N: Bam, first chapter! This is only going to be a short fic, probably about three chapters from what I can see occurring thus far. But, who knows where this could go? Haha :P

I had the inspiration for this story when I was on the train back home and I was listening to 'Will I' from the RENT soundtrack. The scene that will appear in the next chapter just hit me and it all developed from there! Also, if you haven't seen RENT, go watch it - it's great :)

I'm looking forward to what you guys think
SakuraWindChime~