I was walking down a road to a house owned by a woman named Lady Pinako. I used to go to her house all the time, so I knew the way. I used to live out here, before my parents died, before I left, and before I changed my looks. She's supposed to be a spectacular auto-mechanic, and I was told to see her for an arm. I need one because I had gotten into a fight and lost my arm. I'm the Rose Alchemist, and I need both of my arms to transmute my bokken into a deadly weapon. I wasn't paying attention really, because if I had, I would have noticed the man standing behind a tree pulling a sword out of its sheath. He jumped out in front of me and held his sword out in front of him. "Give me your money, or else I'll cut off your other arm off." He said, holding out a hand for my money. I wasn't going to give him my money though. I needed that for a new arm. I pulled out my bokken and started fighting. It wasn't as easy fighting with one arm as it was with two arms, but I was managing fine, until I had fought him for about an hour. By that time, I was starting to slow down and get tired. If I kept fighting, I would get hit. "Hey, you there. Didn't your mom teach you not to fight a girl?" I turned my head and dropped my guard for a second to see who it was that came to help me, and got stabbed in the chest. I froze for a second, and looked down at the spot where he stabbed me. The spot around the sword was turning red, and then he pulled the sword out, and redness spread even quicker. I started falling, and I braced myself for the impact on ground, but felt only a strong arm on my left, and a metal one on my right. "An auto-mail." I thought to myself. I looked up and saw a boy I used to know. "Al, you take care of this guy, while I look at the wound the girl got." "Ok Brother." A suit of armor came running from somewhere behind us and went into combat with the man who stabbed me. Ed picked me up and carried me away from the battle and over to a nearby tree. He set me up against the tree so that I was sitting up. "I need to see the stab wound so, ummmm," He was clearly nervous about asking, so I nodded my head yes and showed him the wound. It was turning slightly purplish, and it stung when I moved. "His sword was poison tipped. Good thing I had Al go up against him instead of me." I looked at his auto-mail arm and leg, saw the chain of the State Alchemist watch, and I knew where he'd been immediately. "You're the Full Metal Alchemist aren't you?" I asked, feeling pain rip through my chest in time with my heart beat. "He stabbed near my heart so I would die quicker," I thought to myself. "How did you know?" He asked, tearing strips of fabric off of his red jacket. "Well, because I'm the Rose Alchemist and I hear about you all the time." I winced, as talking was getting painful. Even breathing hurt now. He saw me wince and turned to the fight. I turned my head a little and saw Al was walking this way. I looked behind him and saw the man that stabbed me was tied up like a bull at a rodeo. I laughed, until agony tore through my chest, making me fall forward. Ed reached forward and held me up. I looked up, but my vision was getting cloudy. "I can't see very much." I said, shivering. I was cold suddenly. "Al, we need to get her to Granny's now." "Ok Brother. She's shivering. She needs something to keep her warm. I felt a jacket fall on me and huddled myself in it. I felt someone pick me up, and realized that Ed picked me up and put his jacket on me. "Thanks." I said as I passed out.

I woke up to the sound of yelling. I opened my eyes and saw that I was in a house, and I that my wound was wrapped up and healing. "Well, if I hadn't been coming to see you, I wouldn't have seen her and she would be dead right now." I heard Ed yell. I heard a thump and a thud a minute later. "The only reason you came to see me was because you messed up your auto-mail fighting again. And I'm happy that you helped someone, but do you even know her name?" I heard nothing except the tapping of a foot, so I got out of bed and walked to the door. I opened the door and saw Ed on the floor near a wrench with a bump on his head, and a girl standing at the top of the steps. She saw me and walked down the steps. "Hi, I'm glad you're awake. Granny said that by how fast the poison traveled before she got it out, that you might not ever wake up. I'm Winry." She said, holding out her hand. I shook hands with Winry and then walked over to Ed. I held out my hand. "Need some help up?" I asked. He grabbed my hand and I pulled him up. With most guys and some girls I couldn't help them up if they fell, because I was pretty short for my age, but not with Ed. He and I were the same height. "Thanks for helping me." I said, blushing a little as he looked surprised. "You're welcome." He said. I turned to Winry then. "Hey, do you know where Lady Pinako lives? I need an auto-mail and I heard her and her assistant are the best around." Winry lit up at that, and I got confused. "Lady Pinako is my granny, and I'm her assistant. We're the best around?" I nodded and she jumped around squealing. I looked at Ed, and saw him laughing. I joined in with him, and then Winry stopped jumping. "So, do you want an auto-mail arm?" She looked at my arm, wrapped in bandages, still bleeding a little. "Yes please. I need to arms to perform Alchemy and I need to perform Alchemy so I can protect myself while I look for the Philosopher's Stone." Winry had left after I said I did want an auto-mail arm, so she didn't hear me say I was looking for the Philosopher's Stone, but Ed did. He was staring at me and was about to say something when a woman came out of a room that looked like a living room and asked if I would come with her. I nodded and followed, looking behind me as I followed her. Ed was watching me leave, a sad look on his face. I followed her through what looked like a living room into a hallway that led to a room that looked like an infirmary. "Please sit on the chair please. I need to measure how long your arms are and how wide." I nodded, realizing that this was Lady Pinako. She went over to a drawer and pulled out a measuring tape and measured the length and width of my arm. Once she was finished, she said I should go for a walk with Den. "Who's Den?" I ask, trying to hide the fact that I already knew who Den was. "Den is the world's best guard dog. He won't let anything happen to you while you go to the cemetery and see your parents, Amy." I looked at her, confused. "How do you know or remember that I'm Amy? I changed my look after I left; no one else remembers who I am." She smiled and took a puff of her pipe. She always had that pipe. "You may have changed your looks, but you sure haven't changed the way you act. You used to come over all the time and play with Den. When I said Den's name, your eyes lit up." I smiled and got off the chair. I hugged Lady Pinako and said thanks as I walked out the door, calling Den's name. He came running up to me, licking my face. "Hi, Den. I missed you, too. Let's go to mom and dad's grave." I started walking, and he fell into place right beside me. We were about halfway to my mom and dad's grave when I heard Ed calling my name. I turned around, and there he was running up to me. "Yeah?" I ask, taking up my normal moodiness. "Where are you going?" He asked, panting in between every word. He ran pretty far I thought to myself. "I'm going for a walk, now if you don't mind." I turned around and Den followed me. He still followed behind me, but I didn't care. I wanted to se my mom and dad. I got to the cemetery and Ed walked a little closer to me, trying to figure out why I was here. I got to my mom and dad's grave, sat down on my knees, and broke down crying. Ed walked up to me and put his hand on my shoulder. You're Amy aren't you?" He asked, sitting down beside me. "Yeah, I still can't believe that explosion killed them. I should have died with them." I tried to push the memory of it out of my head, but I failed. I had asked my mom if I could go to the bookstore to get more Alchemy books. She smiled and said sure. She loved that I was studying Alchemy like my father had. I grabbed the money and gave her a hug, then ran outside and down the hill to the bookstore. At the bottom of the hill, I looked up at my house and saw my mom watching me from the doorway. I waved at her and ran to the bookstore. They always had new Alchemy books for me. I usually studied them at home, but today I felt like sitting by a tree in the meadow. I had been reading for about an hour, when suddenly, I heard an explosion. I looked up at my house, and saw that it was on fire. I stood up, stuck my books in my bag and ran to my house. I stood in front of my house for a second wile the firefighters tried to put out the fire then dropped my bag and ran into the house. One of them tried to stop me, but I didn't listen to them. I was trying to find my mom. I instinctively went into the kitchen, and saw that the furnace had exploded. I also saw that my mom had been right by the furnace when it exploded, because her body parts were all over the place. I threw up and fell to the floor. Flames were all around me, but I didn't try to get up. Why would I want to get up? My mom and dad were both dead now. I closed my eyes and invited death to come and get me. "Amy! Where are you?" "Wow," I thought to myself, "He's looking for me. I didn't think he would care if I got hurt." I heard him walking around upstairs, and I tried to sit up so I could stand up, but I didn't have the energy to. Plus, breathing was getting hard now. I tried calling out to him, but all I could manage was a hoarse whisper. "Amy, are you in here?" I turned my head a little and through the haze in my vision and the flames, I saw Ed standing there looking for me. Just the sight of him gave me enough strength to call out his name loud enough. "Ed, I'm over here." He looked in the direction my voice came from and saw me. He ran over to me and picked me up. "Amy, are you ok?" I shook my head no as I tried to fight the weariness that just came over me. "Well, try to stay awake please." I nodded my head and snuggled up against him. He looked down at me and smiled. I smiled right back. We were almost to the door, when a burning rafter fell in front of the door, blocking our way. The smoke was everywhere now; suffocating the fresh air and making me cough. Ed looked down at me again, worried this time. "Don't worry, we'll get out of here, I promise. I smiled and coughed again. He ran back into the kitchen, looking for the back door. He found it, behind a pillar of flames. We couldn't get through it, so he ran into the living room again and saw an open window. He ran to the open window and saw his brother, Al. "Hey, Al. Come here." Al saw us and ran over to us. "Here Al, take her to the paramedics. She's breathed in a lot of smoke." As he was handing me to Al, I tried to jump out of his arms and back into the house. "Amy, what are you doing? You need to get away from the house." He was worried, angry, and sad at the same time. "I have to get my picture of us all together and my bokken." Ed looked at me, and realized I was talking about a picture that had him, his mom, and his brother with me, my mom, my dad, Granny Pinako, Winry, Winry's mom and dad, and Den, Winry's dog. "I'll go get them, you go with Al." Ed put me in Al's arms and ran back into the house. I relaxed in Al's arms, letting the weariness of what I've been through silence me. I closed my eyes so I wouldn't see the burning of my old house, but I could hear the screams of people, yelling for Ed to get out of the house, the sirens of the paramedics cars, and the wind flowing through the trees. But the sound that I will never forget is the sound of Ed screaming as my old house crashed around him. I fell into unconsciousness, tears in my eyes.