"So, what's up?" Winry asked Al, slightly suspiciously, "Did you find another cat?" "Uh, yeah, in a way. Let me show you." Al brought Ed away from his armor slowly, as to not let Ed fall. Ed looked up at Winry and saw her staring, wide-eyed at the sight of Ed shrunken down with cat ears and a tail. "I-is that E-Ed?" Ed looked at her, not sure what to do or say. Suddenly, she leaned over and picked him up like how Al had. She brought him over to her face to get a closer look. Ed realized right then how very much he had shrunk. Standing, he was probably 3 inches now, including ears and antennae. "E-Ed, is that you?" "Yeah," he said loudly so that she could hear. But loudly to him sounded like someone was whispering to her. Still, she heard, and then stiffened. "B-but how? What happened?"
"I don't know. I woke up like this. I still feel mostly the same, though. I even have automail still, I think." "Ed, can you speak up some?" Winry asked, as it was hard for her to hear him. Ed covered his ears- cat ears, that is. "Not really. I'm talking as loudly as I can. In fact, it's starting to make my throat hurt. But can you speak a little softer? It hurts my ears, you're speaking so loudly." He yawned and stretched, saying, "Wow, I'm still really tired." Al and Winry started talking in hushed voices. Ed curled up in Winry's hand and soon drifted to sleep. Winry looked down at Ed. "Sleeping again. But this time, he's completely in the palm of my hand..." She looked over Ed to see if he was hurt in any way, shape, or form without waking him up. She pulled up his pant leg just enough to see that he did have tiny automail, so tiny that she would have a lot of trouble fixing it if it got broken. And he was so small, someone could actually step on him. He was not the size of a cat, he was the size of a kitten. What could they do to get him back? Was it possible? And how did it happen in the first place? What could she do? "Al, we need to get him back. Right now, he's so tiny and fragile, and..." At the mention of the word 'tiny,' Ed tensed up in his sleep. Winry laughed quietly. "He really doesn't like being so short, does he?" Ed tensed up even more at 'so short' so that he was just a tense ball of kitty-Ed in Winry's hands. She laughed again. "I hope he grows up to be tall so that he won't do this every time he's called short. That would be bad if he did that as an adult. Don't you think, Al?" Al wasn't listening. He was staring at his older brother and wondering what to do. Did that mean they had to get both of their bodies back now, not just Ed's arm and leg? How would that work? What had happened to him? This didn't make any sense. Suddenly, he heard Winry calling his name. "Al! Hey, Al! Are you listening?" "Oh, sorry. I was just thinking, what can we do? He can't stay like that. He couldn't walk down a hallway like that, much less find a way to get our bodies back and then fight to make it happen!"
Winry sighed, "Do you two always have to be fighting? It makes me nervous."
"I'm sorry, Winry, but we have to do whatever it takes to get our bodies back, right? Anyway, I'm going to go get back on studying how to get our bodies back. I'll come visit later."
Al went back to the room that he and Ed shared. He began studying once more and then realized something- Al had not been in the room when Ed changed into a cat. Ed had fallen asleep, and he had gone on a walk, and when he came back, Ed was part cat and tiny. Which opened a few more possibilities to how it had happened. However, Al still couldn't think of what it could have been, so he kept studying. He was not only reading up on how to get their bodies back, he was reading about anything that could make him a better alchemist. Suddenly, he came across something that made him stop in his tracks. Is that what happened to his older brother?
Winry didn't know what to do. She was left alone with a sleeping cat-Ed in her hands, so what was there to do? Slowly and carefully, she took the hand that was supporting the hand cradling Ed away from underneath. She flexed her fingers, realising how long it had been. How long could Ed sleep, even as a cat? Noticing he was still tense, she stroked him down the back, staying completely on his backbone. He relaxed his body at the touch.
"Just like a cat…" she whispered to herself. Ed as a cat was actually kinda… cute, was it? Maybe he could stay like this for a few days. She lifted him gently onto her shoulder and put him down softly. There, he could talk to her and she could hear him fine, and she could also talk softly to him, maybe even in the hallways without anyone noticing, but then she would have to hide Ed. Suddenly, she thought of something. She undid her hair to let it fall down around her and then moved some of it to act as a curtain around Ed. She walked carefully to the mirror to check her hiding skills. Sure enough, Ed was completely hidden. She heard Ed waking up next to her ear.
"Ed? Are you waking up?" she whispered to him. Clearly, she heard a response.
"W-Winry? Where am I?" Ed asked, followed by a yawn.
"You're, um, on my shoulder. Remember what happened?"
Suddenly, he did remember. He reached up onto his head and felt his cat ears, still there. "Oh, yeah. This is a bit risky, though, since I could easily fall off. Do you mind if I transmute something on your shirt, or can you give me something to use to make it a bit safer? I don't want to fall off and get hurt badly, so… You get what I mean?"
"Yeah, I guess you could do something. Just don't do too much to my shirt, ok?"
Ed clapped and placed his hands on her shoulder. Nothing happened. Not even any energy showed up to help. Ed gasped.
"Ed, is there a problem?" Winry asked, hearing Ed's deep intake of breath. She felt his tiny gloved hands hit her shoulder over and over. Suddenly, her eyes widened. "Don't tell me… Didn't it work?"
Ed put his head in his hands. How had this happened? He was tiny, part cat, and couldn't do alchemy? What could he possibly do now?
"Ed? Are you okay?" Winry asked him when she thought she heard him crying. Then she realised what he was really doing: laughing hysterically.
"What else could go wrong? What happened to my life?" he asked while still laughing crazily. "May as well do anything now. What else could happen?"
Just then, Al burst into the room. He had run from their room to Winry's in a matter of minutes, as he thought he found out when had happened to Ed.
"Nii-san! Winry! I think I know what happened!" Al exclaimed excitedly. "Huh? Where is Nii-san?" Winry pulled away her hair to show Ed laughing uncontrollably on her shoulder. "W-what happened? Why is he laughing like that?"
Ed stopped laughing slowly and told Winry to bring him over to Al. She carried him over to Al and then set him down on his hand. Ed climbed up the bumps and ridges of Al's arm, sometimes slipping a little but otherwise flawless. Al kept his hand under Ed anyway, in case he lost his balance. After a few seconds, though, he was next to Al's head.
"Nii-san, that was some very... Cat-like climbing you did a second ago."
Ed covered his ears. "Not so loud, ok? It hurts my ears," Ed replied in a voice only Al could hear. Even Winry, standing a few feet away, had trouble hearing him with his soft new voice.
"Anyway, I tried doing alchemy."
Al was confused. They did alchemy so often, why was this special? "And?"
"It... d-didn't... w-work. At all. Not even any energy."
Al froze, silent. If his brother couldn't do alchemy, then... They would have to change him back, and quick.
"Al, you were really excited earlier when you ran in. What's the big news?"
"I think I found out what happened. But you won't like it. Not at all."
Ed started to laugh again. "What could possibly make this any worse? Other than few certain people I don't want to see... But I've already seen the colonel today, so..."
"Ed, I think someone turned you into a chimera."
Silence. Winry heard that part, too. She remembered being told the story of Nina and Alexander Tucker, and the brothers' reaction. Sure enough, Ed rested his head in his hands and his elbows on his knees. Winry thought she saw his shoulders shaking. Was he... crying? Edward Elric? She looked at him, not knowing how to comfort him. Was there any way? Would he come to an end like poor Nina and her dog?
"Ed..." She lifted him off Al's shoulder and put him down on her bed. He didn't move at all during that process, except for shaking uncontrollably. Ed had become an illegal chimera, and Mustang and Hawkeye knew, if they didn't spread the word. What would happen to him?
"Nii-san... Listen. Last night, I went on a walk after you fell asleep. When I came back, you were like this. My idea is that someone may have come, kidnapped you while I was out, and then brought you back. I may be wrong, but..."
"So it wasn't a dream… I really was taken to the fifth laboratory last night…"