Chapter One "Creation"

"Al… Al!" He screamed on the inside.

Ed found it impossible to breathe, like something sharp was jammed into his throat. The only sound that emitted from his being was hardly breathing, he bathed in his own blood but it was too hard to see anything around him, like his eyes were burning.

"Al… Envy… did Envy do this to me?" He tried to blink, unable to think clearly at this point.

There was a white door that had stood in front of him; the vision of Al's armored body there for his last glimpse of family. There was no hand reaching out for him when the doors opened, only black things that caressed against him as if to try and figure him out.

Before he had accepted it, the metal blade had run through his heart. The slowed heartbeat and blood that had trickled down his mouth was the last his eyes had seen.

But now, he saw a blue light. Ed could not realize what was going on, only… that he was… on his back…

Flashes of his mother's gasping breath flooded his mind. It felt like… he was not all there… he was missing something very important. The classical music was ringing in his ears as sounds came back to him. The record player was skipping against the song as if left there for a long time.

His eyes came to open on his own now, but he had to slink forward with his gloved hand. It took him a second, but once he tried to move the right arm, he was horrified. "My arm? It's back?"

His soul cried out in remorse, did this mean his brother was dead? Was he brought back to life?

A young woman was lying against the floor, her hair pressing against it as she cried there. The woman was dark skinned with streaks of pink in her hair; she was holding a baby close to her. "Edward… Alphonse…"

"R…Rose?" Ed had finally managed to speak a word, but he could not see himself right now.

Rose turned… and Ed watched her expression change. She stuttered in a gasping way, anger and disgust all over her face. "ISHVALLA SAVE YOU! YOU MONSTER!"

Ed's heart felt like it was stolen away; the pain in his chest was his soul crying out; if he even had one at this moment.
He moved up, his body felt like lead and iron. The chandelier to the palace-like room was shattered so that glass was all over the floor.

Ed's blond hair swayed to the side, he didn't want to look down… but there he was. "I… I'm… like they are…"
"A Homunculus!" Rose snarled, looking at him with pure hatred. "Al tried to bring Ed back but made YOU instead! You may look like him, but I know better."

Ed remembered saying things to Sloth of that manner, before he'd killed her.

Rose's fingers were twitching, holding her child that would not stop its crying. "I know better."

Ed fell to his knees, his leg was restored so it did not make the clucking noise that he was used to. All he could think about now, was his little brother.

"Alright! Then I'll bring him back!" Ed screamed in determination.

He wiped some of the blood that had been scattered all around him, and painted symbols on his arms, legs, chest, heart, and mind. Pulling his arms back he clapped them together attempting the forbidden act, Human transmutation. Ed was always willing to risk everything on Al, his life was nothing; it belonged to his brother.

But he soon found that his efforts were useless, he could not perform alchemy.

Ed kept clapping, the desperation started to course through him. Al's life depended on it. "Why isn't it working? I'm offering my life for his! It's an equivalent exchange!"

"Stop trying to act like him," Rose felt she saw through him. "How could you possibly believe you're an equivalent to Alphonse? You're nothing compared to the original Edward."

"O…Original?" Edward saw that his skin was paler and that his clothing was weird. It was surreal, the feelings in his heart were so strong, but why wasn't it enough?

It was impossible! If he was really a Homunculus, then that would mean… that Sloth really was… his mother brought back…

"This is unfair." Ed's hands were shaking; he balled his fists and slammed them into the ground. "THIS IS UNFAIR!"

Ed reared back, moving to Rose with pleading eyes. "Rose what happened? Where is Dante and Gluttony, did Al really do that? I need to know."

Rose stood up, the dress swishing as she turned her back to him. "You don't need to know anything. Edward Elric, is dead."

She shut the big doors behind her. They slammed once they met in the middle.

"No!" Ed stood up, his eyes blazing in fiery confidence. "I am Edward Elric. I know it."

There was a loud quietness overshadowing him, the record still skipping on itself. It was a lonely awakening… but whether or not he was the real Ed, he was going to save Al.

"People can't be brought back, I know that." Ed breathed in. "But if I'm here, and if I am who I believe I am. Al found a way, so I will to bring him back. Soul, or no soul."
End chapter