A.N.: my apologies to Edward, Nina, Winry, Alphonse, and anyone else I kill, torture, maim, destroy, etc. it had to be done. I felt a sadistic need to prove that Nina's cruel fate was indeed, necessary. Flame if you must. I'm used to venting.

I guess this could be considered a hay-fic because of all the citing (?) again Flame to your hearts content.

Code: ( ) sounds. " " Talking Italics thoughts

Three Paths Lead to One

Edward pushed through the door as quietly as he could. However, when one had a brother that literally never slept….

"And just where've you been!"

Ed winced with guilt yet grinned mischievously. "Sorry Alphonse, I was at the library."

"This long?"

"Yeah, sorry, 'bout that."

Ed shoved his hand into his pocket, and pulled out the sketch book. Pulling off his coat, he flopped onto his bed and started flipping through it.

"You spend half the day at the library and all you have is a picture book?!"

Ed glared at Al, but continued flipping.

Smiling suns, smiling flowers… Smiling bastard and wife…..

(flip flip.. creak….)

Ed stopped on a page with Alexander on it, following suite with its happy peers, and looked up at Al who was now blocking his light.

"Yes?"

"I've seen those pictures before… what are you doing with Nina's pictures?"

Ed lowered his gaze and bit his lower lip. Al sighed a certain way that sounded like a mix of tried patience and pity. Ed didn't like it when he did that; any of the times he did that. It wasn't called for.

"Get some sleep ok? Things will look better eventually you'll see."

At this point Ed thought of a million retorts he could have said, but instead he pushed them from him mind. Al was right again. As soon as he mentioned the word 'sleep' Ed felt the waves of exhaustion wash over him.

That night he had fallen asleep with the book clutched close.

Ed woke up with a start. The nightmares were getting worse. It was still dark out, probably four in the morning. Looking down he saw how tightly he was holding the book around his chest. Looking out and across, he saw that Al was still in Zen-mode, the closest he could ever get to actual sleep. Ed cringed a bit at the thought, and opened up the sketches again. He realized how weird this might seem, obsessing over a child's drawings like this but he couldn't shake that one desperate thought from his mind.

Maybe the answer was in here just waiting to be decoded.

(Flip, flip, flip-flip-flip, sktch) ah! Dammit!

Flipping the already worn pages to the tempo of his rising frustration, he earned a paper cut deep enough to draw blood. Cursing to himself he made to turn the page at a slower pace, sucking the blood off of his thumb. He stopped however when he saw the page the blood had landed on.

Magic circles….The lines are a little faded and shaky but on the whole not that bad… they could probably be used even…

At this moment, the blood from this paper cut had made its way to the first transmutation circle. A familiar blue flash of light come from an unfamiliar material.

The light was faint and died out quickly. Ed stared on in amazement, then thought:

But that was only from a small drop of blood… if I just add a little more…

With this reasoning, he bit down hard on his thumb and tore at the skin around the small cut. This replenished the waning stream of blood to a now workable amount. He then traced the little girl's crude lines with his thumb. There was just enough blood to cover the lines, however, the crimson liquid had already begun to dry at the beginning of the circle…. This time there was an even brighter flash of light. A wind kicked up from the said circle; a wind that pulled instead of pushed. Ed gripped the edges of the book harder than he even knew partly out of fear, partly out of surprise. He pinched his eyes shut as the mysterious wind pulled harder, than died almost instantaneously.

Ed pulled one eye open, then, let the other join in sheer shock.

He was still on "his" bed but it wasn't the same. For one thing, the mattress was different; it was far more comfortable than the one he had been on moments before… sunlight rained through the windows so brightly it was clearly noon. The calendar next the desk had the words "Alchemy Exam" circled in red…. Two weeks later.

He was back in the Tucker's estate. He was so overtaken by shock his hands refused to move from their position. Hands locked around the edges of the sketch book Ed slowly got up off the bed and walked around a bit. He heard laughter coming from down the hall. Come on Alexander leave bigger brudder alone hahaha!"

Bigger bru-! Nina?!

Little footsteps padded their way around the corner. A big bright pair of blue orbs glanced up at his golden ones.

"Oh hi big brudder!" Nina chirped. "Are you done studying fo now? Can you come out and play?"

Ed could not find his voice at this moment so he simply went with a nod and smiled.

"Yay! Come on, bigger brudder has already started counting. Let's go hide!"

Nina grabbed his hand and pulled. Her small hand was warm and full of life.

She took the twelve year old along with her to her favorite hiding spot; an oversized closet. As soon as She closed the door behind her, every thing went black; not just dark but black. He felt the winds again this time faster; stronger.

Edward let out a small yelp. Still clutching tightly to the edges of the book, he found himself back in the military dorms. Looking around franticly, he saw everything was the same as it was before.

"Al-ALPHONSE!!!"