Chapter 1

My second home was set so far East that it didn't appear on any map in my day. Not many people came to our town. It was so rare to get visitors here that my mother and I felt we'd be forgotten here. My mother often visited the market ever since moving here, so as to watch for father in case he came looking for us. One day she had been in the market all day, and had come home with a new friend, Mr. Glukfrine. He was a scary old man with a goatee and grey hair. He made me feel all sickly inside. I still can remember the feeling; I used to run to my room whenever I saw him.

One stormy night I was in my room, thinking about the day and why I constantly ran to my room, ill, when I heard my mother talking to the old man. He had been arguing all day with her, she looked pale and frail, and I had run crying to my dark, empty room when they wouldn't stop. Their voices had begun to carry though the walls of the large old house. I sat, wiping the warm tears from my face and loosening the tightness that had formed in my throat, when the voices has ceased. Now, curious to what they were doing now, I peeped around the corner of my door to see. The scene before me will forever remained burned into my vision; My mother was in his arms, with a scared, shocked look on her pale face. The maid was frozen behind them, and had seen them too. My tray of dinner slipped from her hands to the floor with a clatter so loud it felt like I would go deaf. But what she saw and what I saw were completely different.

A moment later my mother withdrew from his arms with her hands clasping a bloody dagger in her heaving chest. The maid saw suicide, my own mother plunging the double edged knife in her chest, but slowly - as the old mans' hands drew away from the dagger and a ghostly smile creeped across his haggard face, my mother dropped to the floor with a thud that was dull and without life. My stomach dropped and my voice was lost. I quickly shut my door and ran to my window. Seeing my door shut, I heard the old man quickly pace to my room. He didn't have another dagger in his hands, this I knew for certain, but he scared me all the same. He came in, peered behind him and closed the door with a click. Then he said, in a deep, over powering voice that made me feel chill and weak, "my dear sweet Marie, I have a gift for you." He lifted his heavy arms and placed a golden charm around my neck and then shoved me roughly onto the bed and whispered into my ear is a voice so soft. I lay frozen as I listen to his cold, harsh words." May you be consumed by your hearts desire." And then, with fear in my heart, I was lifted from this world into a misty 'like' world and left to wander the familiar planes of my home forever, alone.

A ghostly figure stood in the window of an old, creaking house with peeling window frames and dusty curtains. The erie grey sky behind her backlit her slender frame, making her ever present transparency very noticeable. She never turned around when she spoke, or when she was spoken to. Edward Elric stood there, staring at her, pondering her physique and why he could see through her. Her hair was a misty chestnut brown, and hung in a bulky braid down to the backs of her knees, as they could be seen underneath her long woollen blue dress. She stood as still as a statue made of granite, without flinching at Edwards sudden words.

"Who - are you?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. The words came out broken and quiet, as if he whispered them to him self. A long silent pause stretched between them. There was no answer. The figure didn't even sway with the wind that came, unfelt, through the open window, though the curtains moved. "What is you name?" he continued in a nervous voice, knots forming in his stomach as the silence stretched. His questions were left unanswered.

She leaned forward in the window, her form cast irregular shapes of light across the dark dusty room. Her voice filled the silence like a bell tolling in the distance, stating the time of day; it should be time to go home, it's getting dark. There was no bell though, and there was no time. "My name is Marie Thranklien," she spoke softly, filling Edward with a warm feeling like hot tea on a cold day. "Please help me," she said, her misty voice had an edge to it, cutting off sharply and pushing Edward back into the chilling fear he had felt before she spoke.

She started to fade a bit, her edges blended with the room around her. Edward didn't know what to say next. His voice was caught in his throat, like he was choking on a cookie he hadn't known he'd eaten. He noticed this though and quickly asked the next question that popped into his mind, a question that might solve the mysterious weight growing on his mind. This mystery was too weird to just forget about and ignore.

"Where?" He paused, not feeling the question form firmly in his head. "How?" He tried again, then spit out what made the most sense to him. "I don't understand," he said sharply. He forced his voice out. He threw up his hands and desperately tried to wave them about as if she'd understand that this meant 'stay and explain'. He was used to text books clearly stating the truth and why, not figments of souls speaking to you in an unnatural world where no laws stayed firm.

She stood there, gazing out the window as if remembering something from a distant past. Her blue dress, layers of thick material, blew slightly even though the wind had stopped. Her dress looked to be old fashioned. She sounded as if she really needed to be helped, like she was pleading for an answer that just wasn't there.

"Where is this place?" Ed asked to clarify his earlier question; the knots in his gut were still ever growing and over powering his logical thinking. What was this girl doing in his dream anyway? This was private property! She had no right!

"This is Dream Meadow," She spoke again, the bell sounding behind her. "Please hurry Edward, please," She urged. Then she faded without a sound from in front of the peeling window pane.

Ed woke with a start that startled Al, who sat next to him on the train. They were on thier way to Eastern Command to give Roy yet another report.

Al turned to face Ed and stared at him. "Are you ok," he asked as Ed turned to look at him.

"Wha..?, Oh ya I'm fine; I just… had a bad dream," Ed said a little hesitantly.

Ed turned back toward the window, and gazed at the rolling landscape. A few scattered houses rolled by in the distance. The fields of green grass swayed in the window and almost tricked Ed back into a deep sleep, but then Ed remembered the dream. Who was she? Why was she asking him for help, and was she real? Ed didn't know what to think. And how did she know my name?

Al noticed Ed's silence and looked his way, "are you sure you're ok brother? We'll be there in about 20 minutes." Al tried to comfort him in any circumstance.

"Ya I'm fine; it's nothing." Ed hesitated to explain the dream to Al. It was begining to fade already, but there was something erie about it that he didn't want to bother him with. Besides, he wasn't even sure what it meant! "Hey Al, do you believe in ghosts?" Ed asked curiously, still looking out the window.

"Ya, I suppose, I mean there's no scientific explanation why they would stay here on earth but we can't know every thing. Maybe the soul was troubled or desired the world more then the… gate," Al said finally.

Ed answered back with out turning from the window, "Ya, you're probably right." Ed finally turned from the flying fields and looked at Al, "well I don't know what to believe but what ever, we're looking for the stone and once again our search was unsuccessful, I think it's out to get us, the stone, and there's not much we can do to stop that." Ed was finished talking and was about to get up for a little stretch when the train started to slow and came to a halt in front of Eastern Command Headquarters. The scenery outside the window had changed quickly from fields to houses as they had neared the station.

Ed and Al walked off the train and gathered with the rest of the passengers getting off at this stop. The houses of the Eastern region loomed over them as they walked off the platform and into the crowded streets. They turned in the direction of the headquarters and followed the path they had taken too many times before to forget until they reached the gate. Ed looked up at the windows of the building inside and a smile lit his face almost instantly.

"Hey, Al, do you know of a place called Dream Meadows?"

"No. Why?"

"Oh nothing, but I'll check it up in the map room. I'm sure the colonel will let us, I think I might have another lead," Ed lied. The girl had said something about being in Dream Meadows, if there was a real place called that then it must mean there was a real person in need of his help. The least Ed could do was check up on the place for the military, and while he was there, check up on any rumours for the stone. Who knows, there might be something there.

Ed inserted the key for the gate and entered beside Al. They walked up to the door and walked in, waving to the odd person who called out "hey long time no see, any luck?" They answered back with "No, no luck, but hey maybe next time."

Ed and Al navigated the halls till they stopped in front of a door with a gold name plate stating "Colonel Roy Mustang" was inside. A number of bronze plates underneath that stated the subordinates that accompanied him.

Ed lifted his hand to knock on the door and stopped just before his knuckles collided with it. "Should I?" He asked Al, meaning - should he knock on the door.

"Ahh, well, we do have to give him the report brother."

"No, no, I mean should we knock and not just barge in? I mean, it's Roy. Would he knock?"

"I think he would brother." Al said just a little confused.

"Your wrong there. I'll show him how it feels. Ready?"

"Ya, but I don't think you should just barge in Ed. It's rude to-"

"Oh come on, I'm just having a little fun," and he opened the door and yelled, "Hey how ya doing Colonel? How's Eastern command holding up?"

"You always have fun brother." Al muttered under his breath.

So this is the first Chapter and I've worked really hard on it to capture the feeling of the story and the characters. So I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and have just as much fun reading the second! Oh and the disclaimer, I own not FMA nor its characters or plot. Enjoy!

Updated! And edited, for heavens sake... And yes this is a rebirth for FMA fandom in my books.