AN: HUGE changes guys! I looked over the first chapter and realized how lacking it was considering where I was now. With all these finite changes this means that certain elements of the story will have to be changed, but on the whole most of the story you've read before will still make sense. The actual patch notes that I've written will be posted at the bottom of the chapter so new readers don't get spoiled before they read.

"Beyond the Depths"

Chapter One :: A Desire For All That Is Lost

He found himself in the gritty, damp mud; a foreign sensation washed over his body. His gaze slowly drifted towards the awkward sensation that engulfed him. The sight of blood filled his gaze and his breathing became ragged and coarse, where his left arm once attached as no more, instead in its place was a bloody stump. As his mind came to this realization the pain began to come crashing down on him and wracked over his entire body, causing him to scream out in pain.

His mind told him to get up and move. He needed to find help, there was too much blood. He struggled to pick up his ragged and torn body, but the ground below his feet was a quagmire as rain poured down from above, all he could do was lay on his back and trying to remain conscious as the pain became more and more intense.

Fleeting thoughts filled his mind and he tried to verbalize them, but nothing more than murmurs escaped his mouth. Thunder crackled in the distance as the darkness overcame his ravaged mind and he slipped into unconsciousness.

It's a fair trade, no?

o-o-o

Stinging pain awoke the boy from his sleep, the feeling of darkness still present on his body. After noticing the comfort of his slumber, he had made the realization that he was in between the sheets of a bed; the beige and white sheets made it all clear. He looked to his left arm, his shirt was missing as well as his arm, replacing it was white bandages and soft material underneath it. With his left arm he began to inch his right hand over to the wound…closer.

A gentle touch stopped him from getting any closer; a touch that gentle could only come from a woman or a small child. "I wouldn't touch it," a hushed voice spoke beside him, "you may reopen your wound."

He looked to his right, a woman, no older than himself sat in a wooden chair beside him; her hands resting on her knees as her blue eyes peered right into his very soul. Her jet black hair stretched down her back stopping halfway down her spine, she fashioned two bangs in front of her face. "Who are you?" he asked, voices filling his head with probable names for the young girl.

The girl smiled, her teeth showing through the smile. "My name is Wynn, what's yours?" she asked.

The voices in the boy's head amplified, they weaved themselves through his thoughts. They grew louder, and louder until he was able to speak. "Name? What is my name…?" he spoke to himself gently, trying to remember his own name. The name Shin was dropped throughout his thoughts, the voices which whispered a near silent echo. "It's Shin," the boy said, lying back on the pillow and outstretching his right arm, "Shin Maxwell. Nice to meet you, Wynn."

Wynn noticed he was eyeing around the room, "The shirt you were wearing, was dirty and bloody. I washed what I could, but blood stains don't come out so easily," she paused and looked at the young man's face in even more detail, "you're not from around here are you?"

"No," Shin replied, almost instantly, "I'm from America, I live in a small town off the outskirts of Detroit. That's all I can remember right now."

The girl winced, and tilted her head, "America?" she asked. "That's a funny way of saying Amestris."

The voices in his head began to stir up again; he tried to remember what happened after he left his house that day; and why he was missing a limb. This was all a lot of information to process at the moment, but he was sure he was still back home. Only one way to find out. He rolled out of his bedside, his body aching with every movement he took.

"Hey! You shouldn't move, you're injured remember?" the girl said, trying to stop Shin from leaving the room.

Shin cleared his throat and spoke with a firm tone, "Let me pass," he said, "I need to see this for myself." Wynn hesitated for a second then moved out of the way and opened the door for him. He walked down the stairs slowly, one step at a time, reaching the bottom he opened the door. Rain bounced off the shingles on the roof and dripped to the ground. He had no idea where he was, it didn't look urban at all the whole area was rural. Not a modernized building in sight, no electrical poles, no cars, not even a bus! He didn't understand, he didn't remember how he got here; he struggled to remember his own name, he didn't even know the location of where he was.

He dragged himself back upstairs after closing the door and crawled back into the bed. He closed his eyes a few minutes and thought. This is a dream, it has to be. I don't remember…anything. The last thing I remember is waking up on Saturday, everything else is just blank. Almost like something, or someone, doesn't want me to remember. He opened his eyes and looked around the room slowly, he noticed some sort of operating table with a wrench and a full set of tools on it. Looking closer he could see a prosthetic limb made of metal lying on the desk.

"It's automail." Wynn said, noticing his eyes gazing on the work bench. She walked up to the bench and took up the arm giving Shin a closer look.

"Automail?" Shin asked, weakly coughing. "You mean like prosthetic limbs right?"

"Yes, exactly," Wynn replied, playing with the thumb of the left arm, "it functions differently from the stationary prosthetic. Automail gives you full range of motion, without sacrificing mobility on the user."

"It's a painful process to even attach it," a voice called out from behind Wynn, "most adults usually scream during the surgery."

Shin looked at the person behind Wynn, he looked to be aged in his thirties, and inky black hair covered his head; a few stray strands of hair dangled in front of his head falling beside his left eye. The man was an average build, taller than normal but at the same time wouldn't tower over Shin if they stood back to back. "Good to see you're awake," the man began, "I'm Wynn's father, Treize. Nice to meet you…" his voice trailed off waiting for Shin to respond.

"Shin Maxwell," he replied, "thank you for your hospitality, I really appreciate it. "

Treize smiled at the injured boy, "You were out for almost two whole days. Are you feeling alright, you know, besides the whole missing limb part?" he asked playfully.

"Yeah," Shin replied looking at his left arm, the wound still pulsing pain through his body, "I'm alright for now."

Treize pulled up a chair and reversed it do the back was facing Shin; he sat down and crossed his arms resting them on the back of the chair. "How'd it happen?" Treize asked.

"I don't know," Shin responded simply, "I woke up on Saturday and that's all I remember, next thing I knew I was outside in the rain; the trail runs cold there." He gripped his bed sheets with his right arm, he was struggling to remember, but his thoughts were all clouded; the harder he thought, the thicker the clouds got—thunder cracked outside startling him, rain soon could be heard on the rooftop.

"Ah, looks like the storm's back. I'm stuck inside for another day, damn; I needed to run to the market to get some supplies." Treize said bowing his head to the right.

Shin cleared his throat catching Treize's attention, "So," he began, he stared right into the man's eyes; the fire from them seemed to heat up the longer Shin focused, "tell me more about this 'automail'. "

An hour passed before Treize convinced Shin that he should take the automail surgery. "Listen," he began his lecture to the fifteen year old, "you're not going to make any progress just by sulking in this bed. You have a better chance to regain your memories if you aren't hindered by a lost limb."

Shin looked down his legs as he scissored them, he lay back onto the soft pillows and took a breath. "It's not that," he began, "I'm sure this is an expensive procedure, and I have no money to pay you…"

There was a brief pause in conversation before Treize spoke. He looked at his daughter and nodded his head in affirmation. "Don't worry about it." He said. Noticing Shin's astonished face he continued, "I got it covered, I just want you back on your feet again with two hands."

"Treize," Shin said, started to feel emotional he rubbed his chin, "thanks a lot. I really appreciate it; you don't have to do this you know."

"Ha! I'm a specialist when it comes to making automail and undergoing the surgery, Shin! Believe me this will be a cakewalk, I've seen people in way worse condition than you!" He paused and adjusted his position on the chair. "I won't lie though, Shin, you were in pretty bad shape when we found you."

Wynn shuddered, she remembered all too well what transpired that evening; there was so much blood, she wasn't even sure she was able to stop the bleeding before her dad showed up.

o-o-o

"You're alright! You're going to be just fine!" she chanted to herself, applying pressure on the boy's wound. Blood trickled down the side of the dining table as the fifteen year old tried to stop the young boy from bleeding out. She reached down to her feet and quickly unlaced a shoelace from her shoe; she wrapped it tightly around his bleeding stub. She had managed to slow the bleeding significantly but not stop it, "Don't you die on me!" she pleaded. The front door shut and footsteps walked into the kitchen, she looked behind her, "Dad!" she said, "Help him! He's in bad shape."

"Wynn? What happened?" Treize asked as he threw his jacket on the floor, quickly tending to the young boy.

"I found him like this," Wynn said, wiping the blood from off her cheek, "he was lying outside town when I was coming back home!"

Treize grabbed some antiseptic from underneath the sink and some gauze, he padded down the wound with the soaked gauze. "Did you, now?" he asked, "Did you also carry him inside?" he asked again running back to the sink getting some long bandages; he began to tie up the young boy's arm.

"More like dragged him. It was kind of difficult to get him inside, and even more difficult to clear a space for him." Wynn said, still applying pressure on the wound as her father continued wrapping.

"I taught you well," Treize said as he finished wrapping and tied a knot on the end of the bandages, "remove the tourniquet now. Let's get him upstairs and pray he makes it through the night." He added.

o-o-o

"You almost died, well, I thought you almost did." Wynn said looking Shin in the eyes, her gaze unwavering.

Treize cleared his throat, "We can start the surgery tomorrow if you think you're 100% ready, or we can start it whenever you're ready. A word to the wise, Shin, rehabilitation process usually takes around three years."

"I'll do it in two if I have to, I need answers." Shin demanded.

Treize looked taken back by the statement; he furrowed his brow and locked onto Shin's eyes. "You have yourself spitting blood, you're aware of this right?"

"I know," Shin said, "the more time I sit here, is less time I could be using to getting answers." He paused and looked at Wynn, "You wouldn't happen to have any books here, would you?"

Wynn nodded, "It's not central, but I'd say we have a fair amount you could read. I'll be back in a second with them." She returned a couple minutes later with a stack of interesting books which Shin had never seen before, one of the books fell off the stack and skidded towards the bedside.

Shin picked up the book and ran his right thumb over the hard cover of the book. "It's old," he began commenting on the book, he looked at the spine which had the title written across it, "Introduction to Alchemy?" he said, resting the book on his lap.

"It's something I dabbled in, when I was much younger." Treize said, rubbing the back on his head nonchalantly.

"I think I'll take a look at it, I'm quite interested in this 'alchemy.'" Shin said, opening the book and flipping through the first few pages.

Treize got up and moved his chair to the door, "Wynn, look after him," he said, "if you need anything, Wynn and I are right here." He said to Shin as he closed the door.

Lightning light up the window as Shin kept reading, Wynn watching his eyes pace back and forth across the pages. He began to feel drowsy and set the book down to his side and closed his eyes to catch some rest, Wynn said a simple goodnight as she left the room and walked over to the spare room across the hall, and she shut the lights off and climbed into bed.

*Spoiler Notes*

-Chapter one and two are condensed into a more refined first chapter titled "A Desire for All That is Lost "

-A little more backstory on Shin's location when he awakens

-Shin has no memories of his past, other than his name, and his birthplace

-Since chapter one and two are combined into one long chapter, the numerical order of the following chapter has been changed, ex, Chapter Four is now Chapter Three