This is going to be a loooooooong story so I would love to have a review from ANYONE who reads this. I own nothing. If I don't specify anything then assume it is the same as the Manga or Brotherhood.

Mike, Train to Central

"So Ed why are you so eager to get to Central?" I asked.

"We met a former state alchemist who had notes on the philosopher's stone. There are copies of those in a library in Central." He said excitedly.

"Why do you two want this stone so much?" Alistair asked looking over the seat.

"If you have the stone you can ignore the law of equivalent exchange. Which means we can get Al his old body back without sacrificing anything!" Ed yelled.

"Oh." Alistair said.

A few hours later we arrived and all of us were amazed at how big the city was. When we were getting off the train I suddenly heard someone yell

"EDWARD ELRIC!"

I turned to see a huge muscled guy squashing Ed in a bear hug. It was so comical that we all burst out laughing.

"Why are you here? I thought that you had something in central that you needed to do right away?!" Ed said prying himself away.

"I have been reassigned to guard you once again! Scar is still on the loose!" He said flexing his muscles.

"Hmm Edward, who are these people?" He asked.

"Uh ill explain that later. By the way guys this is Major Alex Louise Armstrong." Ed said.

The Major led us to a Hotel and covered the expense of getting rooms for all of us. He also informed the Elric's of some bad news.

"The Library that housed Dr. Marcohs notes burned down just a few days ago."

Ed immediatley punched the table. Al sat there devoid of any emotion as usual.

"Dammit! We were so close to!" Ed was yelling.

I didn't really get what was going on but I realized that Ed was upset about something.

"Don't you guys keep records of all the stuff that was written down in these libraries?" I asked.

"No the libraries are secure so no other copies of the notes exist." Major Armstrong said.

"Uh excuse me..." A lady in military uniform poked her head into the room.

"I know someone who might be able to help..."

A few hours later we were in front of an unlocked apartment door. Alistair opened the door and we looked inside. It was like a library crossed with a creepy warehouse.

Books were stacked to the ceiling in stacks that were in danger of tipping over and falling on top of us.

"So who wants to go in first?" Ed asked.

Alistair led the way and we each followed eyeing the unstable piles.

After a few minutes Al yelled "someone's under there!" and ran over to a pile with a hand sticking out.

We all rushed over and helped to dig out the person. After we dug her out the girl introduced herself as Cheska and she wrote down all the notes Doctor Marcoh had stashed away in the library.

When the brothers got the books they didn't seem all that surprised that they were cookbooks.

"Uh Ed these are cookbooks note research notes." I pointed out just to make sure.

"I know. Most Alchemists encode their notes so that no one else can read them. We just have to break that code!" He said determinedly.

"Thanks Cheska. Lt. Ross take this down to the bank and give this amount to Cheska from my research funds." Ed said giving the Lt. What appeared to be a check.

Judging from the shocked expressions on their faces it must have been a lot but I didn't get to see the amount because each of us had picked up a stack of notes and were carrying them back to the Hotel room.

Ed and Al had a separate room, the girls had a room and the rest of the guys had a room. We spent the next ten days wandering around exploring Central. Andrew and I bought pistols to carry along with our knives so we could have a back up weapon.

Alistair and Elsye just seemed to disappear together and then show up late at the hotel. Kevyn and Kayla were looking into the on goings of the world and trying to see if anyone else had randomly appeared. Angela and Em were training outside the city and they went after small criminals around the city.

After the tenth day we found Ed and Al brooding over something.

"What's wrong can't crack the code?" I joked.

"Oh no. We cracked it but there's no way we can make one!" Ed said punching the table.

"Why?" I asked nervous.

"The main ingredients are human souls!" Ed said.

I saw he was crying. Using human souls to make something was horrid in both worlds. Those who ate them in our world became gods of chaos. Those who used them here must be sick.

A few minutes later the major came in to find us still pondering what we had just been told.

"What's wrong Edward you all look like you've seen a ghost?" He asked.

Ed explained the situation to Armstrong.

"This is horrible! If the military knows about this, what other secrets might they be keeping?" The major said lost in thought.

I could see Ed was thinking about something but before I could ask him about it Armstrong pushed everyone but the Elrics into the hall.

"What the..?" Alistair yelled as the door was slammed in his face.

We tried to listen through the door but we couldn't hear anything until Armstrong yelled at Ed about not going somewhere. The door opened and the Major came out holding a rolled up paper.

"What was that about?" We all asked.

"Later!" Ed said holding a finger to his lip.

Later, Alistair

We were sneaking out while the girls covered us by keeping Ed and Al's guards busy.

We were going to an "abandoned building" known as the 5th Laboratory. That was where the Marcoh guy had done his research and the best place to search for anything not in his notes.

When we got to the wall outside the building we helped Al over then climbed over after him landing in an empty courtyard.

"Damn it's locked!" Ed said trying the door.

We couldn't break the door or change it with alchemy without alerting the guard so Ed squeezed into an air vent and he clipped me in sword form to his back.

He crawled for a while until a vent led directly below us. He jumped down and I changed back to human. We walked around trying to find the door but we only ended up in a large room with a big alchemy circle on the floor.

I noticed that it was pretty simple compared to some of the ones I had seen but something else caught my attention.

A red suit of armor stood on the other side of the room staring at us. There was no stand so I assumed that it had someone inside of it. I tried something that I had only seen Derick and my mother do.

I focused and my sword form appeared in my hand.

The person in the armor seemed surprised as they drew a sword as well. Ed clapped then changed his automail arm into a pointed blade.

"Who are you?" Ed demanded.

"I am the guardian of this place. Now why are you here runt?" The person said.

His voice sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. Ed launched himself at the man.

"Who'd you call a super small ultimate runt?!" Ed yelled as he kicked the man in the shoulder.

I was surprised that it made a hollow echoing sound. I rushed him as Ed leaped back and our swords stopped with a clang.

"Be careful! He's an empty suit of armor like Al!" Ed yelled behind me.

"Ha so you know someone else like us? Well you'll never leave this place alive so it doesn't matter." The armor said laughing.

Now I knew why his voice sounded familiar. He made the same echo when he talked like Al did.

I rushed at him and we clashed swords. I could tell that he wasn't a pushover with a blade but he definitely hadn't faced a real opponent in a long time.

But I wasn't exactly used to fighting with a sword so it was a pretty fair fight.

I lunged at him and we crossed blades once again with my weight pushing him back. Ed rushed in and knocked the helmet off the armor.

As it flew away I saw a seal within it that looked like the one on Al's armor. The armor fell back and the helmet glared at us.

"So will you tell me everything you know about this place?" Ed said picking up the helmet by the plume.

"No, you see the mass murder Slicer as we were called was a team of two brothers and one suit of armor doesn't mean one soul..." The helmet said.

I quickly turned to see the body of the armor fly past me and jam its blade into Ed's arm.

He dropped the helmet and tried to raise his arm but it only shivered. I changed my weapon. The sword became two scythes attached to my wrists with chains.

I threw the blades and caught the body's arm as it prepared to finish Ed off. It turned and I saw a second seal in the same place as Al's. I pulled the arm back towards me and the whole body came flying towards me.

When it got to me I kicked it into the air and changed weapons again. This time into a deadly black star shaped shuriken.

I threw and cut the body just above the waist. The star shredded through the armor and it fell back to the ground and tried to move towards me.

"I never thought I would see the day when we would lose a fight like this." The helmet said.

"You probably would have won against most anybody else if they weren't me or someone like me." I said.

"Now will you tell us what you know about this place?" Ed said still trying to get his arm to move.

"Very well but only if you finish us off after I tell to-" the helmet said but was cut off as a black spike lanced through his seal.

"Now now, 48 we can't have you telling all our secrets." A female voice said from the darkness.

"Brother!" The body screamed.

"Now Fullmetal alchemist I think it's time for you to leave." The woman said emerging from the darkness.

Mike outside

I am fighting a moron was all I could think.

This guy was just like Al and he freaked out when Al showed him that he was just a suit of armor.

Kevyn was messing around with him by kicking him back every time that the idiot tried to hit him with his cleaver.

We were just killing time until the old lab started to blow up. All of a sudden the entire building started exploding and we all got serious.

The armor guy escaped but we were all preoccupied with making sure Ed and Alistair were safe.

I saw a guy with spiky black hair carrying Ed but Alistair was nowhere in sight. The palm tree haired guy dropped Ed off and ran away before we could ask where Alistair was.

I was about to rush in when Kevyn and Andrew grabbed me.

"You idiot if he's alive right now then he'll make it out!" Kevyn yelled.

We all ran away from the lab and got away from the explosion. I kept watching for any sign of Alistair but I didn't see anything.

After the Explosions finished I ran over to the remains of the building and started yelling his name.

At first there was no response then I heard a faint groaning sound under the rubble.

I started tossing the rocks away and found Alistair using a piece of broken armor to hold up a large piece of rock. He tossed the rock aside and started yelling at the armor like a crazy man.

"Slicer wake up!" He kept shouting over and over.

I saw a seal on the neck that had been wiped away by the falling rocks.

I put a hand on his shoulder and shook my head.

Alistair got a sad look on his face and picked up the sword and sheath next to the armor.

"He saved me but I couldn't save him. How does that work out?" Alistair said.

As he tried to stand up he stumbled. I checked his leg and found it stained with blood. I called Kevyn over and together we carried him back to the hotel.

"What happened?!" Elsye and LT. Ross yelled at us.

Elsye treated Alistair's leg as best she could but her experience was a little under par for this type of injury.

"They're going to need to go to the hospital. Ed has a few broken ribs and Alistair has a fractured leg." Elsye said.

Raigina, Rockbell house

"No! You have to make sure the motor functions are attached to the nerves connectors before you add the covering!" Pinako yelled at me.

"Sorry!" I said.

Pinako had agreed to teach me how to at least repair automail so that I could fix up Derick's arm if it ever got busted up.

After my conversation with Lord Death we had agreed that Truth wouldn't be sending us back until we did something here. But even Death had no idea what that was.

So in the meantime I had taken to learning how to fix Automail for when we went back.

Derick was doing chores for the Rockbells and hung out with Den quite a bit.

Winry kept telling him not to overexert himself but her warnings were wasted. Derick was determined to recover as soon as possible and he was training his muscles back into fighting level for his standards.

I could see that he was in pain though. He was acting as if he was fine but his soul was in turmoil. It was reeling and it almost appeared to be screaming silently.

He went down to the river often under the excuse that he was trying to relax his mind and work on using his new arm but I knew the truth. His pain was driving his madness over the edge. He went to the river to let out the insanity. I had followed him once and found him letting his madness out and slicing up trees with his hand.

It seemed to be working because his soul seemed to grow a bit calmer every time he went to the river.

When he wasn't doing chores of at the river he worked out or experimented with the black blood. So far he'd made a form of armor that looked like a long black trench coat.

I looked up from the arm I had been working on and found myself wondering how the others were doing...

So yeah any input would be great. Thanks for Reading.