Chapter One

Pulling Yourself Together


I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

In front of me was a boystilljustababy, who couldn't have been older than eight, maybe ninesosmall, bleeding heavily from his left leg.

Well, what was left of it, at least.

I extended mytwistedwrongithurts arm to...I actually don't know.

Try to help the heavily bleeding boy? Shake him and demand he tell me what the hell happened to me? Or maybe follow through with my earlier thought and attempt to shove my organs back into my body?

In the end it didn't matter, I didn't have the strength for any of those things, my arm harshly falling back down on the stone floor, causing another flare of pain, and into a puddle of my blood (and other fluids that I didn't want to even think about), after I was only able to lift it a few inches off the floor.

"Damn it! This isn't what we wanted!" The boy screamed, slamming his fist on the floor.

'Well, congrats. This isn't what I wanted either, kiddo.'

"Al? Where are you?! Alphonse?! No! I won't lose you too! I can't!" Was frantically cried out, while the blond-haired boy as he dragged himself over to something in the room that I couldn't see from where I lay, my destroyed vocal cords keeping me from telling the boy to wrap a tourniquet around his leg or calling out and trying to get help for the both of us.

'I think I'm either about to pass out or I'm actually dying this time.' I thought, my vision blurring and darkening around the edges. I was brought out of my thoughts by a loud clanking sound echoing loudly in the room, some of the darkening subsiding, though my vision stayed blurred.

"Don't worry Al, there's still time. I'll save you!" The boy called out, the sound of metal scraping against the stone floor, the sound painful and causing the barest vibrations inducing another wave of agonizing pain to flare across my body.

I still couldn't see what he was doing, and was about to try calling out once more, even when I knew the pain that would cause, when suddenly I heard a clap, and then bright flashes of light were shown across the room, along with what sounded like the crackle of lightning and the smell of ozone.

And then I was alone.

I knew I was alone now, there was no other sound besides my own difficult raspy breathing, and now that I was actively listening for other sounds, the sound of a storm, the muted sound of rain hitting the roof of the building I was in coupled with the low rumble of thunder. The pained and labored breathing of the boy was just gone.

Taking in a deep breath(ithurtswhydoesithurtsomuch?!), I shifted enough to use my arms(they'rebentstrangelytheyhurtsomuch) to drag myself towards the closed, but unlatched, door I could now see now that the fog(orwasitsteam?Idon'tknow) had fully lifted. I had no idea where the boy went, and to be honest, I was in too much pain to even care, the feeling of my organsintestineslungsmyheart being dragged across the slightly uneven stone floor nearly making me pass out from both the pain and still trying to get over the fact that my organs were on the outside of her body!

'Does that make me a bad person? No, no, I'm just trying to get help, that's all.' I rationalized with myself as I painfully inched my way to the door. 'Please actually go somewhere useful and not a freaking closet or bathroom.'

I didn't have a chance to find out right then as light once again flashed across the room.

"Brother? What happened, where's Mom? Brother?! You're hurt!" The voice of a different boy from earlier, this one sounding strangely muffled, cried out, still out of my line of sight.

'I guess this is the 'Alphonse' the other boy was calling for before.'

"I'm sorry Al. I was wrong, it didn't come out right. I'm so sorry." Came the voice of the blond boy, he sounded like he was in even more pain than earlier.

'Well, ouch. 'It' is right here thank you very much. Mangle my feelings with the rest of me, why don't you?' I thought, coming to the conclusion that if these boys didn't do this to me themselves, then they at least had something to do with how I ended up like this.

"What didn't come out right?" The muffled-sounding boy asked, the question accompanied by the odd sound of metal clanking together. "Why am I in Dad's old suit of armor?! Brother, what happened to my body?!"

"I'm sorry, Al. It was all I could do with so little time. You were gone, I had to do something! I couldn't leave you in that place!" The blond boy yelled, sounding a few moments away from bursting into tears.

'What place? Where did you disappear to?'

"It's okay, Brother. We'll figure out something later, right now we need to get you to Granny Pinako's and Winry's, they'll be able to help you." Was calmly said to sooth the other boy, followed by a tinny-sounding gasp. "Is that..."

'I guess 'Alphonse' finally caught sight of me. I wonder if I feel worse than I look or look worse than I feel?'

"No, Al! Don't look!"

'Yeah, no seriously, don't look kiddo, I know I'm a freaking mess right now.'

"It was a mistake. A horrible mistake."

'Aaannd we're back to hurting my feelings. I know you're only like, eight, but you really need to work on a brain-to-mouth filter and being more considerate of the feelings of others, no matter how much of a mangled mess they are, buckaroo. Especially when it's probably your fault they're like this.'

The sound of shifting and clanking metal echoed in the room as a suit of armor, carrying the body of the boy from earlier(he's lost an arm now too what's happening), came into my line of sight, quickly walking towards the door I was trying to get to before.

'Wait...A suit of armor? A little boy wouldn't be able to even fill the leg of something that size, let alone be able to walk in it. Unless…No, it can't be.' Immediately I looked down at the floor I still laid on, my earlier attempt at dragging myself to the door moving me not even three inches, despite all the pain it caused, to see a chalk drawing.

But this wasn't a child's clumsy, but adorable, drawing done on the driveway or sidewalk while their parents cooed over their 'little artist', oh no, this drawing was so meticulous and precise in a way no ordinary child would be capable of.

'I'm… Laying on a transmutation circle.' Looking back up at the now open door, scattered flashes of light occasionally spilling into the dark room, the two boy long gone while my concentration was else where, I thought of the little blond boy(he wouldn't like me calling him 'little' now would he?) missing two of his limbs, and the suit of armor with another little boy in it(though only his soul and blood of his brother are the only things really in it).

I thought about these things.

And promptly panicked.

Letting out a shrill high-pitched shriek, not even thinking about the pain that caused my damaged throat, I lashed out in panicfearpain, hitting the work-table next to me with surprising force, not hearing the ominous clinking of glass from above me, still completely lost in thoughts that were a chorus of 'No, no, no' and 'This can't be happening, it's not real'.

It wasn't until I started to feel a different, but still incredibly painful, burn that I noticed the liquids spilling from the edge of the work-table onto me too late to move away before I was thoroughly doused in the liquids as I began to violently shake and tremble uncontrollably, frantically moving away from the work-table as best as I could, feeling the shards-of-glass-everywhere pain from earlier as well as this new, terrible, burn that was spreading.

My throat letting out even more shrill screams, that I didn'tcouldn't feel, as I writhed on the floor. I couldn't even see or hear any more, the pain(burningburningmakeitstop), blinding me and deafening everything except the pounding of my heart.

Then, as quickly had the pain started, it stopped.

And not just the burning, but all of the pain was gone.

As I laid on my side with my eyes closed, panting, trying to catch my breath after screaming for so long, I noticed that breathing was no longer painful. I carefully opened my eyes to see that my vision was clear, not blurred or darkened in the slightest. Slowly extending one of my arms above me didn't incite any of the pain or fatigue from earlier either.

I felt my lips twitch up into a small, barely there, smile as I slowly(carefully) moved onto my hands and knees(Ihavelegsagain), still slowly moving, this time into a sitting position with my legs stretched in front of me, being careful of the couple broken bottles that fell from the work-table, I once again looked at my body, starting from the bottom up.

'Ten toes.' Giving them a small wiggle. Check.

'Two legs.' Flexing my calf and thigh muscles. Check.

'Now the stomach.' I clenched my abdominal muscles, still no pain. Check.

Lifting my arms in front of myself, I flexed my fingers(Ten of those too), I then eased my back into a curve to touch my fingertips to my toes, my unbound hair closing around my face and shoulders like a curtain.

Still no pain.

I let out a laugh that didn't make my throat feel like it was being ripped apart. I carefully stood and slowly walked towards the door, wary of broken glass and the liquids that, while they apparently helped me, caused me excruciating pain first.

Just before I exited the room, I turned back to look at the transmutation circle, Edward's and Alphonse's transmutation circle, my transmutation circle. Quickly looking around the room I spotted a cleaning rag, grabbing it and walking back towards the circle, rubbing it away made easier by both mine and Edward's blood as well as the mixture of liquids that were still slowly spilling from the edge of the work-table, though I was careful to avoid contact with those as I wiped at the entire circle, seeing as I didn't have proper cleaning supplies I wasn't able to wipe it away, but I was able to blur it completely.

If(when) someone comes to see what happened all they'll see is the completely blurred, and therefore unidentifiable, circle, the blood from Edward and I(though I doubt anyone will be able to tell who else it's from, other than Edward of course, I really mixed the two while wiping at the circle. Is blood typing even being used yet?), and the broken chemical bottles.

Just a regular transmutation gone wrong, no human transmutation here, no siree.


'I feel like I just cleaned up a murder scene. My murder scene. ' I thought as I walked out of the room, deciding to take a right instead of left, walking down a short hallway that lead into another room, looking for some clothes, arms tightly wrapped around my chest, all too aware of the fact that I was completely, naked as the day I was born. 'Well, I guess I was born today. Born again that is. Or was it born, died in an earthquake, again born, died of a 'mysterious' disease, then brought back as a homunculus? Wow, this is going to get really confusing really fast.'

'I think Trisha's room would probably be upstairs.' Making my way through what I guessed to be the living-room, difficult to tell as my only source of light being the occasional flash of lightning through the windows, but I think I managed fine.

I absently wondered why I still wasn't in the throes of a panic attack as I continued to walk through the house, finally seeing the stairs as lightning flashed.

'I think I'm compartmentalizing, seeing as I'm sure any minute now Roy Mustang, Pinako, or even Dante are going to come busting through the door and I'd at least like to have some underwear on and be able to hide before any of those things happen.' I thought as I quickly made my way up and to the top of the stairs, taking a moment to look into each room as I walked passed, seeing the room that was Hohenheim's study, books scattered everywhere, a bedroom that must have belonged to Edward and Alphonse, from the two twin beds, a bathroom, and finally at the end of the hall, Trisha's bedroom.

I took a deep breath before I opened the door, the hand resting on the door knob trembling slightly, both steeling and calming my nerves at the same time, stopping the trembling entirely, feeling something at the back of my mind desperately urging me to open the door and another part wanting to run away from the house as far as I could go, clothes be damned.

So of course I did what any normal person would do and opened the door.


AN: wow, i did not think this story would get any reviews or favs, but it did and you guys are so so sweet! i'm currently working on chapter 3 so hopefully i'll have that out soon. but please leave reviews! they're why i was able to get this second chapter done at all. even if it's just a 'i liked it' it means so much to me, and if anyone has any writing tips that they'd be willing to share please feel free to leave a review or PM me! - Lia