Ghost Trick X Fullmetal Alchemist - Cheating the Scales of Equivalent Exchange

Chapter 1 ~ Falling Through the Gates

Hey, everyone. This is my first work on this account, and I really thank you all for taking the time to read this! Many thanks to my awesome beta-reader Beagle (Ed-mun) for helping me get this off the ground and onto the website. I cannot thank her enough.

~This is a story that takes place after the events of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, and some time after the Brotherhood episode "Envoy from the East"~

Rain from a late night storm poured upon the panes of the windows, warm light from a lamp lit the living room in a relaxing tone. Detective Lynne sat on the plush leather seat, catching up on her mystery novel, as Kamila played with her kitten, Sissel, on the ground.

After the events of the one tragic night where the future had been changed in the favor of many, Lynne had taken it upon herself to babysit Kamila for Detective Jowd whenever he and his wife Alma were on vacation.

So as the minutes ticked by on the old grandfather clock near the table, Sissel couldn't help but become aware of an eerie presence in the room. However, being stuck as a kitten due to the fragment of Temsik stuck in his body, the furs standing up on her back were not visible to Kamila as she stood up and left the room to find another toy for Sissel.

Dropping the catnip mouse he held in his mouth, he looked over at Lynne and mewled, catching the redhead's attention.

"What's wrong, Sissel? Kamila abandon you?" she laughed, but paused when she saw the rather serious look the cat was giving her. Setting her novel aside, she stepped over to the cat and kneeled down to him, resting a hand on his back.

Sissel closed his eyes and jumped into the Ghost World, a similar view of the world where he, a ghost possessing the shell of a cat, could move freely to possess and manipulate smaller animals and objects of many kinds.

When the events of That One Night had been reversed to a more fortunate present, Lynne had forgotten the friendship she forged with the cat. However, she regained her memory a month ago when she was unlucky enough to fall victim to being poisoned by a wanted felon. But Sissel was right nearby to use his unique ability of Ghost Tricks.

Not only could be manipulate animals and objects, he could also travel four minutes into the past to try and prevent a person from dying by reaching out to the core they gained once they lost their lives. The only exception to this was that that person could only have been dead for under 24 hours. After that, they will be unable to be saved. If the person was saved, they will have a yellow core if you were able to contact their spirit during the process.

So, as Sissel entered the realm, he reached out with his paw to Lynne's core that appeared over her heart and entered conversation with his friend.

"Lynne, I'm hoping that I'm just having and iffy cat moment, but I can sense this disturbing charge in the air, almost like it has gone stiff," Sissel mewed to his friend, his amber eyes darting around him in the swirling red reality of Ghost World conversation.

"Well, if you really feel like that, then take a look around the room with your Ghost Tricks. I'll watch your body and make sure nothing happens to it," Lynne smiled.

Feeling slightly better, Sissel backed out of his conversation and jumped back to his body, looking for any sign of a strange phenomenon that would make one's skin crawl.

As Sissel glanced around the room, the foreboding charge in the air grew stronger, even with the Ghost World's pause on time. He could not tell where it was coming from, being unable to see any tell-tale sign of trouble. Leaping back into the present, the small kitten looked back at Lynne and shook his head.

"Nothing, huh? I bet you're just feeling some sort of draft," Lynne said, trying to comfort him. "I'll make sure there are no windows open."

Walking out of the room to inspect the windows, Sissel's lied back and he rolled his eyes. "Wind doesn't feel like talons gripping your back, Detective."

However, he would try and force this thought into his mind as he jumped onto the warm seat Lynne had been sitting in and decided to try and rest.

Sissel had assumed that the Detective would try and stop him, but a light, pulling feeling at his body whetted his senses as he immediately sat up and stared around the room.

Despite the fact that the appearance of the room hadn't changed in the slightest, Sissel still felt the hairs on his pack prickling.

Closing his eyes, Sissel leapt into the Ghost World and looked around again. This time, rather than the familiar cores in all of their spaces, there was a large white spot on the floor. As he stared at it, he felt a peculiar tugging at his soul. Sissel forced himself back into reality and ran to go get Lynne, staying as far away from where he knew the white core was.

Lynne had just entered the living room when the black kitten slammed into her legs, causing her to tumble further into the room, right over where Sissel knew the large white core to be.

"Ack!", the redhead yelped, attempting to not step on her friend's tail. "Crashing into me isn't the best way to get my attention."

Sissel felt his heart racing as he looked into the Ghost World. Lynne's figure was standing right over the sucking white light. But she didn't appear to be affected in any way by it. The black kitten still felt the nauseating pull from it, though.

"I wonder... what would happen if I were to try and possess that core," Sissel suddenly thought, his eyes entranced by the white and his curiosity eating at him.

Without stopping to ask Lynne what she thought, Sissel reached his paw out on impulse and touched the light.

Suddenly, he was forced back into the real world where that section of the ground opened up, revealing a grotesque gray eye. Serpentine black arms reached out from around it, wrapping themselves around Sissel and dragging him towards the pupil of the eye.

Sissel opened his mouth to let out a wail, and stared over at Lynne, horrified to see that she too was being grappled by the snaking limbs. There were few times when the cat had ever been so scared, and the extent of his scary experiences were with actual people, not an army of black hands grappling his being

"W-what is that!" Lynne yelled, unable to free herself from the web and was pulled towards the eye on the floor.

As the two were yanked over the eye, they appeared to dissolve and fall into the pupil. Sissel felt his feet slowly dissolving into nothing and the numbness crept up his legs to his belly.

Kamila ran into the room and stared from the doorway as they were consumed, her eyes huge with fear. "Lynne!" she yelled, stepping forward.

"No! Don't! You might be swallowed as well!" Lynne called, causing Kamila to freeze like a statue. "I'll be okay, but stay out of the room!"

While Lynne yelled her heart out to the girl, Sissel felt his body disappearing. What is going on? Cores never work like this! This isn't a core at all! his mind screamed. Normal cores would allow him to manipulate the object they were attached to, or talk to the creature attached to it. This one opened up into the massive eye as soon as he touched it, something he had never expected out of a ball of light.

As hard as he tried, he couldn't re-enter the Ghost World. Sissel's last look at the world was seeing tears roll down Kamila's cheek as he was quickly enveloped in darkness and a feeling of falling down wrapped around him…