Forbidden

A/N: So, I decided that I really wanted to rewrite forbidden! I realize that since I wrote it and going through college, my writing skills have gotten way better. Plus, in my honest opinion, my sequel really sucks so I kinda wanted to put it all into one and just make the ending an epilogue rather than a sequel. So, here is to hoping those of you who have reviewed, followed, and favorited me on here enjoy the rewrite J

Chapter 1

It seemed like an eternity as I fell into the darkness, the one thing that had managed to consume me thus far, and finally I came to stand in front of large silver ornate doors with etchings and symbol I had no clue about. I allowed my hand to reach out, fingers touching the design ever so slightly as I wondered what was behind these doors. Suddenly, I froze, feeling a chilling sensation run up and down my spine and throughout my body, so I turned to face whatever the presence I felt was to see a white figure sitting there cross-legged. It had no face; no eyes, it was like a blank human canvas with only a mouth and it made me go pale. I could feel the blood halt in my veins, and my heart seemed to stop as well, until the void-like figure spoke to me.

"Well child, what do you think about this? Quite fascinating isn't it?" It mouth formed into a wide toothy grin, and its teeth were just as white as its body.

"Who are you? And where the hell am I? Where is this?" I felt lost and confused, not knowing anything about this. Was it a dream? Or could this really be happening? Then, I felt my limbs growing weak and limp, and my head began to spin.

"I heard your wish, child. I am simply tying to help you fulfil it. Isn't this what you wanted? A new start to your meaningless life?"

"Ugh, you didn't answer me! Who the hell are you?!"

"I am known by many names… I am God, I am the World, I am the Universe, I am One, and I am All. But, most importantly, I am you! You are now in my domain, child. But, you wont have to worry because you won't be here much longer, for mortals have to pay a price to be in God's domain."

My knees gave out from under me, my entire body feeling inhumanly cold, and everything in my body felt as though it had just stopped. My hand went to my chest, and I couldn't feel my heart beating anymore, yet here I sat alive and well. Well, that was what I had thought anyway. I could barely focus on what the Truth was saying to me as I felt my body growing weaker and weaker.

"You are paying the price with your humanity now. In turn, you will live your ife out as a vampie in this new world. What I would like from you is to find the cure to this and proe me wrong; prove that you aren't as weak and fragile as you were ack in your home world. Only then will you have a chance to gain back what you have lost. Think of it as Equivalent Exchange…" Finally, my body stopped feeling as though I was on my death bed so to speak and I moved, standing to look in a mirror behind me and I gasped at what I saw. My fingers trailed over my now paler skin, and my eyes were a deep shade of red; not quite red but not quite maroon either, and my long blonde hair looked fragile as well as added to my paleness. My body seemed smaller as I could see my collar bone and the outline of many other bones throughout my body. My cheeks were sunken in on my face and I felt the urge to cry. But I knew better; I wouldn't show this Truth the satisfaction of the torment that it was putting me through.

"The process is now complete. Find the cure and open the portal of truth and only then will you have the chance to gain back what you have lost."

I wanted to turn aound and yell at it, at this blob or void, for now giving me an impossible task, for ruining any chance that I had at a normal life. But that would give it a sense that it won at whatever game it was playing with me, and I didn't want it to get that impression from me beacause I was stronger than that. I could beat this Truth at its own game and prove to it that mortals weren't as weak as they seemed. As the truth spoke its final words, I felt my head spin around and darkness consume me.

"So, you just found her in an alley and chose to bring her here instead of a damn hospital FullMetal?!" A man spoke first as I began to come around to consciousness, and he sounded fairly young to me. His voice was deep and stern but it also had a sense of a fatherly approach to it as though two children had done something wrong.

"Well, Colonel jackass… I wasn't going to leave her there, and the hospital is futher away than central command! Her body was frozen as it was and I wasn't even sure if she was alive…" The second voice, seemed as though he was a young teenager with a hot temper and poor attitude towards those who were considered his elders. In a way, he was like me before all of this shit happened.

"Calm down, brother. We need to see if she will even wake up to begin with. Who knows how long she was out there. The colonel is right though, we should have taken her to a hospital… But, at least he's allowing her here until she wakes up…"

"That's if she even wakes up Alphonse. Take a seat FullMetal…. What do you know about this girl, anyhow? A friend of yours? An enemy of some sort you want to beat some answers out of? There has to be some sort of reasoning behind you going to a damsel in distress." There was a smugness to the elder mans voice that I wish I had been awake to snap his jaw… I wasn't a damsel in distress! I was a harmless confused girl thrown into some new world because of someone elses sick games!

"Pft, no. I already told you when we got here. I just found her in the alley on the way here, and nothing moe. I figured you might be able to get some answers out of her because she doesn't look like shes even from around here… Plus, who would knowingly leave someone to wake up alone on the street like a stray dog?"

I felt my eyes suddenly grow light and my lids opened to a bright blinding light that sent me flitching into the couch I now laid on and I was shocked at how defined everything was once my eyes had adjusted. I could see dust particles floating around and there wasn't a streak of sunlight to make it visible to the human eye. I reached a hand to my head and groaned at the feeling in my throat. It felt like it was on fire, and dry from weeks of not drinking a single sip of fluids. It was when everyone else moved my body went on the defensive without me thinking twice about it. I found them staring at me as I went to yell and scream, but what left my lips was not what I had thought it would be. I sounded like a feral animal, hissing at them as though they would tie me up and do away with me the first chance they got and leave me for dead. I felt completely different than anything I ever felt before. Everything was heightened for me, and it was petrifying to say the least… I stood straight, decided to ignore the three people watching me, and examined m body. I could see the dark blue veins in my arms, and I knew that my eyes had to be dark red, just as when I left the gate. I knew enough from reading vampire novels and such to know that some believed that vampires eyes were a dark red when their thirst was left unattended to and would revert to another color once they fed.

"I am so…sorry…." I haulted afte the first few words left my lips and realized it wasn't just my appearance that had changed… I was sure that I looked like hell in this state of thirst and such, bt my voice sounded like someone different. It was higher and much more feminine and it felt wrong to hear such a voice leaving m lips when I was used to my tom-boy like tone. My fingers moved from my arm to my hroat, and I sighed. If these people knew what I was, would they believe it? Or would they thin k I was crazy? Honestly, in this situation, there was no positive here, only negative outcomes of me either being killed for what I was, locked up because they thought I was insane, or who knows what else. Then, Finally, I looked up to inspect the three that I had heard talking.

The first I saw was the older man. He looked to be in his thirties at the latest, maybe late twenties, and he had dark eyes, almost as dark as his raven black hair. He seemed stern as well, with his blank facial expression, as if it was his way of trying to maintain peace with me since I knew I seemed hostile. Then, my eyes fell on a large suit of armor; it had a tail of hair that reached from the top of its head down past the middle of its back, with glowing red beady eyes. Finally my eyes landed on the third and my breath caught in my throat. I was pretty sure at that point, my heart would have beat out of my chest if it were beating. I couldn't believe how handsome he looked for someone so young and short. Little did I know not to call him short, but it would soon come to my attention. No man like to be insulted about his size in the least. He had golden eyes, the same shade as his hair, which was tied back in a braid that hung just past his shoulders. He wore a red jacket, with black leather pants and a pair of dark combat boots.

"This is some sick joke, right? Its all a dream in my head that I am standing hee with three complete stangers… Im not some freak that… Ugh! If this is some sick way to teach me responsibility, you win! Just wake me up…" I pinched my arm and hissed under my breath when I didn't wake up. So, clearly, I was awake and this was most certainly not a dream of any sort. I wanted to cry, scream, and smash something for whatever was going on. Suddenly, I freaked and huffed under my breath as I went to puch the wall to get out my frustration, only to have it shatter beneath my fist. My eyes went wide and my body began to shake as I fell to my knees, hyperventilating. I could feel the three watching me, with no intent to remove their gazes from my now twitching body.

"The Truth… those doors… it couldn't have… its not possible… WHY?! Why me?! What did I ever do to deserve this in any way?!" I curled into a ball until I heard a voice behind me and smelled blood… my blood. My knuckles had been scratched along with my hand and blood dripped from the scratches. The older man with dark hair leaned down and pulled me to my feet, but I struggled to get out of his grasp. I watched him as all three of the people held their hands up as to say that it was fine.

"Hey, my name is Colonel Roy Mustang. Why don't you come sit down, and maybe you would be okay with answering some questions?" He moved away slowly and back t his desk where the other two stood, and I followed calmly. I had to keep it together for my own safety, and for theirs… if everything the Truth said was true, I was a vampire and I could easily snapp thei necks and drain them dry, not caring about the consequences that it would bring later. It was when the tree caught my eyes that they gasped to themselves.

"Hey! Are you an Ishvallan?" the boy in the amor asked me. I cocked my head to the side and shook it, signaling no.

"Ishvallan? No, I dot even know what an Ishvallan is… Look, my name is Valerie Larose and I'm not even from here…wherever here is really… I'm from New York. I just want to know where the hell I am and maybe you can explain what happened to me when I saw that thing…. It was creepy and awful…" Well, here went nothing… Just as I was about to try and explain what had happened, there was a knock on the door, and a blond woman walked in. Her face seemed blank, and she had her hair back in a clip in some sort of bun. Her skin was normal, not too white, and not too tan, and her eyes were a deep brown color. And it didn't really surprise me that she wore the same uniform that Mustang did.

"Ah, Lieutenant, perfect timing. We were just going to discuss the matter of this young woman that the Elric's brought here…" The colonel smirked, but the blond's face was full of concern.

"How is she? No serious Injuries, I assume?" She didn't sound very feminine from the tone that came from her voice, but I could also hear the wory in her voice that I, a Stranger, could have been harmed out on the street since I had been unconscious. I looked to her and smiled, trying to make it clear to her that I wasn't hurt. I rubbed my throat as the firey sensation coursed through my throat, now more evidence that I was a monster made by the truth.

"I'm…fine… Look, I just want to know where I am, and more than anything I want to go home rather than stay somewhere I feel completely lost in… I could have sworn I was dreaming about what I saw, but clearly I wasn't and this isn't someones sick game… I…" my eyes felt damp, and I noticed tears were starting to trickle out of my lower lids, and I wiped them away. To be honest, I was scared, worried that someone could get hurt, that I would end up dying somehow, or worse… The young blond watched me intently, and I straightened myself.

"I was in front of these big silver doors, and they looked like something that you would see in fairy tales I guess in a way, like a way to get to another world? I don't really know how to explain any of this, honestly. There was this thing, it called itself the Truth, and…"

"You saw the Gate?!" I could see the shock in the younger mans face as he stood up, seeming furious at what I said.

"I don't really know what the Gate is… I just know I turned and saw myself in a completely different way… My eyes, they were like this, my skin was just pale… It said that I had to pay a toll, and it… it took my humanity." The blond woman turned me to face her, my chin in her had and my body went rigid as she gasped seeing my eyes.

"I know what your thinking, miss. I'm not an Ishvallan… According to the Truth, I'm a vampire. I have to find a cure to vampirism in order to get my humanity back. And I don't even know where to begin…" I ran a hand nervously through my hair.

"So, your toll was your humanity. But how did you open the gate? You had to have performed a transmutation of some sort."

"Edward, could it be possibly that alchemy wasn't involved? If shes from another world, another dimension, alchemy may not even be possible." I looked at Mustang, and then to Edward and they both pondered that.

"You make a point… What happened really?" Edward looked at me as I fidgeted under their gaze.

"I had an argument with my brother… and I passed out in my room. That was it. I found myself in what you call the gate, and it turned me into this monster…" I could feel my body begin to shake with silent sobs, and a hand was lightly placed on my shoulder. It was the woman, Hawkeye, I believe that I had heard the Colonel mutter.

"Valerie, you aren't a monster. Just because you were dealt a cruel fate doesn't mean you're a monster… You're still a beautiful girl, and you have a chance to fix whatever happened, I'm sure of it." Those comforting words helped a little until I realized I was the opposite of what she said. I may seem beautiful to them, but I knew better…"

"But that thing made me a vampire… something that shouldn't even be real! Vampires have to feed on blood to survive, and the last thing I need to do is wind up hurting someone…"

"But, vampires aren't real whatsoever. They are a form of fiction people thought up for entertainment…" Edward seemed as though he didn't believe a word out of my mouth, even when the gate was involved. But at the same time, he seemed to wonder if it was possible at all.

"Alright, mister know it all, if im not a vampire, then why do I feel this fire in my throat? Why is it every time I look at you, I can see the pulse in your neck beating rapidly, and I feel as though I can barely contain myself… I don't want to hurt anyone, and I just want answers and it's the only reason I have any form of self control…"

"Edward, if you don't belive her, feel her hand, her shoulder. Her body feels like ice. I may sound crazy here, but I believe her. She isn't ishvallan, so of course the red eyes hae to come from elsewhere. Her body temperature isn't normal either, and it isn't from being on the streets overnight…" I lookd at everyone and wondered what would happen now.

"Valerie, don't worry. We will figure this out, and get you back to you normal state so that you can go back home. Between the Elric's and us, there has to be something that we can figure out something." So, at least they didn't want to kill me, that was the plus here. I had read enough and heard anough about ampires that most people were frightened of them… I remember watching shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, right along with eery other show and movie known about vampires to know that not everybody accepts vampires.

"Okay, so shes a vampire. Other than her looks can she prove why else I should believe her?" Edward sounded smug, and I was getting furious with the obnoxious little blond.

"Well, I could just bite you and leave proof on your neck if you would like…" I snarled at him, and I received an incredulous glare from him, as though to mock me that I wouldn't touch him, even if he said yes.

"So, how exactly would you eat if ou are supposed to feed on human blood? And shouldn't you have fangs?" I heard Alphonse chirp up at me, and I frowned.

"Well, I could go the easy route but I doubt that I could… People give blood to blood banks and such, I could always feed on those. Its just as nutritious for vampires." Then, I turned to see mustang dialing the phone and talking to someone, before he hung up and called another person.

"Well, I think that could be the easiest answer to your problem, so I made a call to a coule of friends… I've got him bringing me a supply for you asap."

"But that means another person to explain everything to… I really don't want more people knowing than need be, just because I'm weird like that. I'm afraid that someone could get hurt for helping me, knowing I'm not from here and on top of that, I'm a vampire…" Before anyone could answer, there was a knock at the door, and I went stiff as a board, making Mustang chuckle at my facial expression. A man with a squared face, slight stubble, and glasses wearing the same uniform as everyone else came in with a large suitcase hanging at his side. The man smirked at Roy and then looked to me.

"So, this is the girl, huh? Seems you were lucky that the Elric's found you when they did." He shut the door and brought the suitcase over to the desk, setting it on the floor. "Roy told me about you're condition, and a lot about you, at least what he knows about you, so I hope that isn't a problem. I wondered why he had wanted me to pick up blood from the blood bank, but to think that you went through what you have and haven't gone crazy… This must not be easy for you in any way. Im Maes Hughes, pleased to meet you." He held out his hand and I smiled at him.

"Valerie Larose, and it's a pleasure o meet you as well. So, if you don't mind me asking, what did Roy tell you about me, anyway?"

"I know that I am on a need to know basis, for one. And that you somehow landed hee searching for a cure to your condition… for vampirism… But, that's about it. Hopefully, you don't mind me knowing that much."

"Not at all, sir. I thank you for helping the Colonel out to get me what I needed… I'm so new to all of this. I wasn't always like this… I was normal. At least semi-normal when it comes to being raised by your crazy older brother. Ever since mom and dad passed away, its been hard for him taking responsibility for me and everything else… He dropped out of college to raise me, and took on a couple of jobs, and een odd jobs when he wasn't working at his other two jobs, and put me through high school. But, after a year or two passed, I noticed changes in him. There were empty alcohol bottles, and he was always moody with me. Just before I got sent here, we had been in a pretty bad fight, arguing like cats and dogs… and he turned and smacked me across the face, and I fell and cut my knee on a nail that had come out of the floor board. I didn't give him the chance to apologize before I ran to my room and cried myself to sleep. I knida have a messed up life…" Eeryone looked at me sympathetically, all except for Edward and Alphonse; mainly because Alphonse had no expression, and I don't think Edward really cared.

Mustang took a bag of blood out of the suitcase, and tossed it to me. I caught it, luckily, with a rapid movement of my arm reaching to cover my face. It was then that all eyes were on me again, as I watched the bag with disgust. But, at the same time, I knew that this rich, red substance was one which I craved to quench the fire that raged in my throat, in my gutt, and throughout my entire being really. There was a tiny tube that had a cap like thing on it, to keep the blood from leaking out of the bag, and I popped it off and put it to my mouth, sucking in the dark crimson liquid and sighed in reliefe as the fire began to subside. Edward was the only one gawking at me, as everyone else had turned away due to be squeamish or whatnot I guess. When I finished the bag, I retrieved another, and then a third before finally feeling satisfied with myself that I would be fine to further discuss what to do and maybe figure out what my vampire self was capable of. I had always heard of some vampires having powers of some sort, like telepathy, seeing the future, and whatnot. I think it would have been cool to be able to look into people's minds, maybe form a connection with someone.

"So, what exactly did the Truth tell you when you were inside the gate, anyway?" Edward asked. I gave him look that I would have given my brother when he asked why I was home fifteen minutes later than the curfew that he allowed me.

"Way to be blunt pipsqueak… I mean really? You coldnt ask if I was feeling bette before you jumped right back into the questions?"

"pip…squeak? WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING A MICROSHRIMP SO SMALL BARELY A MAGNIFYING GLASS COULD SEE HIM?!" I guess he had an issue when it came to anything to do with his height.

"Alright, the Truth just told me it heard my wish, which I know I had said I wished I could be anywhere besides at home. But I never meant forever! It said I had to find the damn cure in order to gain back what I had lost, and I have no clue how to go about that whatsoever!" I snarled under my brath and yanked on my hair, now frustrated that I thought about the Truth and the gate again.

"Okay, well, that's somewhere to start!" Alphonse said happily.

"If the Truth told you to find the cure, then there's a cure somewhere and we will help you find it and restore your humanity, and maybe even come up with leads on how to get our bodies back to normal!" Edward sounded happy, and I was confused. That was when he gripped my shoulders and I felt something off with one of his hands. I ran my fingers over his right gloved hand and his smile faded as he jerked away from my touch. I wrapped one arm around my midsection, and put another to my mouth.

"You… You lost your arm?"

"Yes… It's a long story, so why don't we just talk about it later?" And when Edward said later, he meant never. But as I laid a hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes, everything around me stopped… Could I hear his thoughts?!

A/N: Okay, so it took me three days to finish this all up what with work and two very hyperactive dogs, and over 100 goats! Two are in our house right now with pneumonia, and we have to bottle feed them like five times a day… Its way to hard to write with those cute faces wanting to be held and cuddled because they get cold, and its also hard to write when the chihuaha thinks they are dogs and chases them around the house and they bounce up and down at her… Yeah, I have a crazy life right now. I am planning on getting the next chapter up within the week, and I hope that you enjoyed J Reviews are very much appreciated.