This chapter came out...waaaaaaaaay longer than I anticipated. I wanted to have Anna tell the Elric's her story later, but I didn't know what time would be good, so her story of getting automailwill be in this chapter. It's a little rushed, I apologize, I had to do something and I wanted to get it done fast.

Disclaimer: Don't own, never will.Chapter 2: Learning

Shortly after Ed got off the phone with Winry, Anna had gone upstairs to her room. It wasn't until about a half hour later that Ed saw her again, but her arm was in a sling. "How'd you get your arm into that sling?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you only have one hand."

Anna struggled to find an answer. I'm an alchemist that can perform alchemy by clapping. I just put my hands together and created a sling, okay? No, no, shut up! She smiled and walked into the kitchen. "It's no big deal. I just used teeth and my other hand."

Ed stared after her and just shrugged. It most likely took more effort than how she explained it but it was worth it. "Crap," he heard her mutter. He watched as she walked out of the kitchen toward a closed door. "Be right back, I need some flour." She opened the door and quickly shut it behind her.

She walked down the steps and turned on the light that was hanging above her head. She walked over the large sheet that lay over the middle of the concrete floor. Her neck began to get sweaty. She hated going into the basement. It brought back so many memories. So many…horrifying memories.

She got the bag of flour and turned around. She noticed that a part of the sheet had moved and part of the chalky design was showing.

"MOMMY!"

She groaned. With her right hand she clutched her shoulder as she kicked the sheet so that it covered the circle properly. Anna tried to calm down but the circle was like a paper with rules that are very important. You just can't forget it, no matter how hard you try. Stupid idea mom, look what you got me into.

Roy Mustang sat in his office. He was transferred from East City to Central (again) with all of his men. He picked up the pen and started to twirl it in his hand. "Shouldn't you be doing paperwork, sir?"

Roy smirked and turned to his wonderful Lieutenant. "When was the last time I completed paperwork?"

"Too long ago, sir."

"Exactly," Roy said, leaning back in his chair to look at Riza. "You should put your hair down more."

"Excuse me?"

"I said, you should let your hair down more."

"Why?"

"'Cause it looks nicer," he said. "So, changing the topic how's Fullmetal?"

"He's in Central, but I don't know where. He said something about visiting-"

The door opened and Hughes stood with a hand raised in the air. (This story takes place before Maes died, I just love him and I want him in the story, alright, don't kill me) "Yo! I have just taken some more pic-!"

"Hughes, I really don't want to hear about your stories. Did Fullmetal and his brother visit you earlier today?"

"Actually, no. I'm not sure why, usually they visit Gracia and have a nice meal with us, but I haven't seen either of them," Hughes replied, adjusting his glasses.

"Well, it's late. I guess we could look for him tomorrow."

"You mean, you will look for him?"

"No, I mean we."

"Are-?"

"You're going to help me here, Hughes!"

The next morning, Anna woke up with a severe pain in her arms, leg and foot. She groaned, and looked out her window. Dark storm clouds covered the sky but it hadn't begun to rain just yet. She rolled over and with her right hand trying to massage all the aching areas to try to soothe the pain away.

She heard the door open and looked to see Alphonse with something that of a bottle shape. "I brought you a couple hot water bottles. Nii-san says that they help ease the pain from the stumps," he said as he handed them to her.

"Thanks," she muttered hoarsly and was shocked to hear that her voice was so low. Something big was coming. "How's Ed holding up?"

"Nii-san's still asleep. He usually sleeps off this pain."

"He's lucky," she murmured under her breath, but Alphonse caught it.

"About what?"

She gulped. "U-uh, promise you won't tell him?" she asked with uncertainy in her voice.

"Promise on my soul," he said.

"I told you and Ed that I only have two automail limbs, am I correct?"

"Mm-hm."

She threw off the covers to show something that Alphonse hadn't expected. She had been hiding an automail left foot from her ankle down, and an automail right leg from about mid-thigh. "Pretty big accident, huh?"

"What happened to you?" Al asked.

"I don't wanna talk about that now," she groaned slightly before covering herself up and placing the bottle on where the pain struck most-her thigh. "It's a long story and I'm too tired to explain it to you. Just…lemme sleep for a little while," she said as her eyes began to close.

"Sleep well," Al said, as he began to walk away.

"Will do."

"You're looking well, little one."

Anna's eyes shot open as she looked into a white room.

"How're the arms, leg and foot doing?"

"Fine," she said sternly.

"Good," the thing said as it walked around her. Her eyes followed, she wanted to make sure that it didn't pull any dirty tricks. "I would like you to meet someone."

Anna looked over and saw Annabel. She let out a small gasp. "N-!"

Anna jolted from her spot on the bed into a full-awake mode. She started to cough, her throat vibrating and her chest hurting with every motion. The coughs came to a slow rest and she clenched her jaw. "Damn, that bastard tricked me again, what the hell does it want? Didn't it get enough?"

"Fullmetal, nice to see you."

"Huh?" she coughed again, getting up. She opened her door, peering out into the living room. Ed sat on the couch, Alphonse standing behind him, and military men standing in front. She saw chains hanging from their coats. "State Alchemists…"

"What the hell do you want, Colonel Ass?" Ed asked; a clear sign of aggravation in his voice.

"I can't come up to check my own friend?" the dark haired man asked.

"Since when am I your friend? I work under you!"

"Well, we heard from Al that you had a cute girl around here that wasn't Winry and we don't wanna make bad appearances," Hughes said.

C-CUTE? Alphonse! Anna thought, rushing to her dresser and getting her morning clothes on. That was when she noticed it. She could move her left arm! She looked at the piece of metal. It looked the same, but how could she move it again? It seemed out of the ordinary, but she brushed that aside, and threw on her shirt and pants. She rushed down the steps, and smacked Al in the back of his head. "The hell? You told that man that I'm cute? Don't think that I can't hear from upstairs!"

Al rubbed the back of his head. "The only way to keep these two dumb heads from fighting is to say something that will stop them from getting into a fight!" he explained.

Anna was about to say something when a photo of a little girl was pushed into her face. "Anna-san, don't you think that my daughter is adorable? My name is Maes Hughes! I work with Ed," he said as he shook her hand.

"I-it's very nice to meet you, Hughes-san," she said, feeling a little dizzy from the way her head moved from the crazed shaking of her hand. She turned to Roy. "And who are you?"

"Colonel Roy Mustang, a pleasure to meet you," he said as he held out his hand.

She looked at it, before accepting it. "My name is Anna Colbalt; it's nice to befriend any friend of Ed's."

"Didn't I just say that he wasn't my friend?" Ed interrupted.

"But you two work together," Anna pointed out, tilting her head slightly to the right. "That means you two are friends."

Ed started scratching his head. "Damn, you're just like Hughes! You take one thing that I say and turn it around completely!"

Anna giggled at his reaction. She looked toward the men in the blue uniform. "Would anyone like coffee?"

"Oh, I would, if you don't mind," Roy said, taking a seat in a chair across from Ed.

"Me two," Hughes added.

"Me three, and I want mine black," Ed said, looking at her back as she walked out of the living room and into the kitchen.

"You can get yours on your own," she said over her shoulder. He threw her a shocked look but she just brushed it off.

She got the drinks ready and brought them into the living room. "Did you get any leads on the Philosopher's Stone?" Roy asked the young blonde.

Anna turned to him. "No," he said, glaring at the Flame Alchemist. "If you gave us any time to look, maybe we could have!"

"Philosopher's Stone? Ed, why do you need that?" Anna asked him.

Ed's glare hardened as he held up his automail arm. "To get these back," he said simply.

"You never told me the story of how you and Al lost your bodies," she said, sitting down next to him. "I would really like to know."

"It's not really long. I was in the war and they were lost there."

"Pssh, that's not true," she said and he turned to her. "I can easily tell when someone is lying."

Ed looked at her and her gaze softened. She placed a hand on his left shoulder. "Please, can you tell me? I wanna know," she whined.

"I can tell you later." Ed turned his head away.

"Now."

Ed turned his head back to her, and he was surprised to hear her voice so serious. He sighed. "We lost our mother when we were young."

Anna looked at him sadly, but anticipated for the rest of the story. "We were so interested in alchemy; I came up with the idea in the first place. We studied for a while, and in February of 1910, we tried to bring our mother back."

Anna gasped. "You tried the Taboo?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. For the price of toying with a human soul, I payed the toll with my arm, Al with his whole body. So I bonded his soul to that armor with my right arm," he said as he got up and lifted the helmet of Al's armor. Anna gasped.

"Th-there's no one in there!" she exclaimed.

Ed pointed to the little transmutation circle in the back of Al's metal neck. "This is his blood seal; the only things that holds his soul with that armor. I drew it with my own blood that came from my leg."

He placed the helmet back on the body. "If for some reason that seal gets destroyed, Al will die. That's why we need the Stone…to get our bodies back."

"That must have been hard. Wasn't your father there-!"

Ed stopped her. "That bastard left us when we were young. He never came for mom's funeral, so I guessed that he didn't care about us anymore. He probably doesn't anyway." He turned to Anna. "And what about you? Why do you have automail?"

Anna's eyes widened and her lips formed a tight line. "W-well, I lived with my family, which consisted of my mother and older sister, Annabel. Our father died before I was born, and Nee-san said that she could hardly remember him.

"I lied when I said I just moved here…well lied and didn't. I moved out of this house, and then moved back a few weeks ago." She got up and walked to the basement door. She raised her hand and called the Elric brothers along with Roy and Maes over. "When I was six, Nee-san died of a rare disease that no doctor could cure.

"My mom couldn't stand it…"

Anna ran through the house, before stumbling into the study. "Okaa-san, what are you doing?"

Her mother, Diana, turned to her. She smiled and began to tickle her. Anna erupted with laughter. "Nothing dear, why?"

"Look at this!" Anna said as she drew an array on a piece of paper that was lying on the floor. She put her hands on it and created a little paper eagle. "I know that Okaa-san's favorite animal was the eagle, so I made one! I practiced really hard! I know that Nee-san liked them too…" Anna trailed off, looking at her mother.

Her eyes lost the shine, and it was like Diana was staring off into space. "Okaa-san, Nee-san is in a better place, right? Don't worry, I bet she's really happy! Don't cry, Nee-san will cry too…" she said as her own eyes filled with tears reluctantly.

Diana put her arms around her youngest daughter. "N-Nee-san wanted me to…to make her an eagle like this! That was her wish before she left!" Anna cried into Diana's dress.

"Although, I took it slightly better, I would never expect my mother to even try. I had tried my best to make her smile," Anna explained as she opened the basement door and started walking downstairs. She turned on the light and it exposed the sheet. Everything was covered.

Anna walked through the house and opened the basement door. She could've sworn that she heard Diana downstairs. She peeked from the cracks of the steps and saw a big transmutation circle in the middle of the floor. She didn't make a sound; she didn't want to be found out. She saw a big pot in the middle of the circle. "What's Okaa-san doing…?" she asked quietly to herself.

Diana put her hands on the edge of the circle and everything glowed. Anna almost had to cover her eyes but didn't. She saw the light turn dark purple-red, and an eye open in the middle of the circle. Little black arm-like appendages appeared from the edges and just got longer and longer. "Crap," she heard her mother mutter. "A rebound."

"A rebound. I knew that a rebound would happen most of the time, I would sometimes read Okaa-san's notes when she wasn't watching. And I knew what a rebound was. But I never thought-!" She stopped mid-sentence as the pain in her right leg began to worsen.

"Okaa-san…" Anna muttered, and the littleblack arms attacked Diana's body. Anna's eyes widened and she stopped herself from scrambling from her safe spot and running to try and fend off the arms. She heard the screams of pain coming from her mother. She saw the little spots where her mother's flesh was being ripped away forcefully. Anna's bottom lip trembled as she felt a tug on her left ankle.

She turned her head, and that was all she saw. A little black arm, pulling away at skin. Her vision turned white, and she was trapped in a white room. "What…?"

"Welcome."

Anna looked around, and stared at a white figure with a black outline. "W-who are you?" she demanded. She couldn't even recognize her own voice; she was that scared.

"I'm so glad you asked! I am called by many names, the World, All, One, Truth, God, (Skip a few), and even," it pointed at her. "You."

Anna gasped. "I'm surprised. No one would have the guts to walk in on a Human Transmutation. And yet a little girl did it!"

"I'm not little!" Anna protested, and the thing chuckled.

"You remind me of someone I met before. He was a lot like your mother, he and his brother tried to bring their mother back, but failed, and met me," it smiled. "Now, I will show you what they saw."

"Saw?" Anna turned when she heard a door open. The large door of truth opened and that dreadful eye appeared again. The little black arms came back and started to tug on her body. She fought back; she didn't want to be taken away by something that didn't seem real. The door closed once she was pulled through.

"It felt like every little thing was crammed into my head," Anna explained to the people sitting on the floor in her basement. She sat in the middle, trying hard not to let tears invade her eyes. "Dammit, it was scary like hell. But, that's what I suppose it was."

Anna reappeared in front of the thing. She gasped. Her head hurt. It pounded. It throbbed, and no words can express the pain. "How was it?"

She looked at the white abomination. "I don't know why I'm here though!"

The thing appeared right in her face. Her eyes widened as she took a step back. "You were in the scene of the Taboo. You were watching. You were technically a part of it, little one," it said her new nickname with some kind of amusement in its voice.

"What was Okaa-san trying to bring back?" Anna asked.

The Truth (That's like, the first time I said its name) smirked and behind it appeared a figure that resembled Annabel. "Nee-san…" Anna muttered.

"She tried to bring back your 'Nee-san'! Now, enough chit-chat, time for the toll."

"Toll?"

"Why, yes, little one. The price which you have to pay since you saw what was in the door of truth," it said and Anna could see a flesh ankle, leg and arms appearing on its white limbs. She gasped. "Have fun, li-ttle one."

"When I 'woke up' so to say, I was so scared."

"AH!"

Anna flopped down on her side. "My arms…! My leg…! My foot…!" she coughed. "MOMMY! MOMMY!"

She groaned, and blood started to pool around and stain her clothes and hair. "Dammit, Okaa-san! OKAA-SAN! Answer me! Dammit! No, you took her away from me! Who the hell do I…ah!" she screamed out in pain. "Someone help me…Nee-san…"

She lifted her head and looked at the transmutation circle, and almost heaved at the sight of what she saw. It wasn't her sister. The basement door flew open to show a neighbor. "Colbalt-san, I heard screaming and-Anna-chan?" he exclaimed and rushed to pick me up. "What happened?"

"I couldn't tell him. I just told him the simplest words that I could muster."

"Tasukete…" (Koneko's translation notes: help me/save me)

Anna walked over to the sheet and pulled it off. The array was still intact; none of it was smudged off. Blood was caked dry in the middle, showing that someone had killed the monster that was her sister. She looked over at the staircase. There were faint smudges of blood there too. "Later, I was fitted for automail. Everyone was surprised. They said that I was very lucky since I survived."

"I can't belive it. You went through something worse than we did," Ed said (RHYME). "I can't believe someone else saw it and survived (he doesn't know about Izumi just yet, I'll get there.). Hey, you can use alchemy?"

Anna turned to him. Fire burned in his gold eyes. "Uh-huh."

"Will you join me and my brother on our journey to find the Stone after we get checked by Winry?"

"Really? You'll take me! That'd be so cool! Thank you so much!"

Ed just smiled. Anna still seemed like a little child at heart, even though she was only thirteen

Uh, the ending was rushed~~~~~~

I liked it, it was longer than most thing's I have written so it's kinda new to me. But, tell me if you like it. I can make longer chapters if you want, just tell me!

BTW I actually did spell-check...

Holy shit, I can't spell for my life. Aside from the words that my computer thinks aren't words, I had so many fuckin' mistakes it wasn't funny. I was just sitting there, face-palming myself constantly.

I will now go memorize the freakin' dictionary.

R&R

Next Chapter::Ordinary