Prologue:

It was a calm, cloudless night. The moon hung overhead, a perfect circle. The military parade grounds were empty and still, the buildings overlooking it dark. Central City was sleeping.

An electric feeling seeped into the air. The animals turned toward it, tasting the air, then fled. The smell grew slowly, intensifying. You could almost hear the air crackle. It felt like a storm was coming.

A giant explosion suddenly shook the headquarters. Dirt and rocks sprayed out, and a mushroom cloud rose high into the air. Hundreds of soldiers woke suddenly, throwing on their uniforms and grabbing their guns. Soon, a huge mass of people stood in a semi-circle around a newly formed crater, guns pointing down into it.

A black-haired man with the stars and stripes of a major general on his shoulders pushed his way through the crowd to the edge of the crater. The dust was finally settling, and they saw two figures huddled on the ground in the center. Obviously this was no ordinary explosion, if they were still intact.

"Identify yourselves!" the general shouted in a clear, ringing voice. There was no answer. He waited a moment longer, and then held out his hand. A blond woman with a captain's insignia placed a pair of binoculars in his hands. He took a good long look. "Impossible…" he whispered.

He tossed the binoculars behind him, uncaring of where they landed, and quickly descended into the crater. "Sir!" the woman called, her voice stern, but worried. She put the lenses to her own eyes, then quickly dropped them and followed.

They reached the two bodies together. Blood soaked the ground. A girl lay on her side, her right arm missing. She was unfamiliar to the two soldiers, and her clothes were strange. Next to her was a young man, his arms clenched tightly around her waist from behind her. His right arm was artificial, though not the automail normal to this country. His hair was long, reaching almost to the middle of his back, and golden.

The general knelt down in front of the two, carefully removing the boy's arms from around the girl's waist. He lifted the girl as gently as he could and deposited her into the captain's arms. Then he turned to the boy and smoothed his hair back from his face. He lifted him up, staring at his face as if to memorize every little detail.

"Come on, Captain," he said, carefully containing the shock and elation coursing through him. "We have to get these two to the hospital as quickly as possible." He could fall apart after that.

"Yes, sir," the captain said, following his example and staying all business. Her jacket was pressed tight against the girl's missing limb, and blood was slowly staining it a dark purple.

They hurried as quickly as they could back to the edge of the crater, trying to avoid jostling the two young people. They set them on the edge of the drop, then clambered up the steep slope before picking them up again. "Lieutenant Breda," the major general said. The portly man was staring at the blond boy in amazement.

"Yes, Major General," the lieutenant said, snapping a salute.

"Get us medical transport, immediately. Second Lieutenant Fury, notify the appropriate personnel." The black-eyed general gazed down at the boy held securely in his arms. His next words were whispered, not aimed at anybody in particular.

"We have our Fullmetal Alchemist again."