Hi everybody. Okay, as you can tell, this is a sequel to My Misadventures in Alchemy. I originally was going to leave it as is, but it was requested that I make a sequel, and then the little hamster running my brain got to spinning that wheel. Unless you have read the prequel to this, you may be a little confused. I'll try to keep the stories seperate, but I don't know how well that will work. I've decided to make this in Ed's point of view. You'll find out why soon enough.

Disclaimer: Don't own FMA... yet. Ownership or bust!

My Misadventures in Alchemy II: Waking the Gate

Chapter 1: For the Living and the Dead

"This could work."

I looked over the scribbles scrawled across the page in my notebook. Yes. Tweak this, add a slight adjustment there… It would be dangerous, no doubt, but wasn't everything Al and I had tried so far dangerous? What was a little more? Just another adventure to document in the little black book I kept in my coat pocket. It could work.

Or it could be a complete and utter failure. Whichever.

Al gazed over my shoulder at the sketch of the circle I had made. I bet if he could actually show what was going through his mind on that tin can helmet of his, his eyes would be wide and he'd be in shock.

"Not that one again!"

It was a circle very similar to the one drawn in blood on the inside of his armor. Just slightly different. A circle that had been coming up quite often as of late. I nodded and stared at the image.

"Remember what happened the last time we used it?"

How could I forget? I had spent all night last night remembering. I closed my eyes, rubbing my eyes. No sleep the night before was starting to take its toll on me and I leaned my head in my hands a moment to collect my thoughts. I looked up at the sleeve of my coat, staring at the chunk of cloth missing from it. I would even like to be back in that instance if it meant being back with her.

I am taken to fiery red locks and emerald eyes. I can't get her out of my head. I wish I could have held her a little longer. I wish I knew her body had made it back to her mother and brother Seth. I wish she didn't have to die.

But it's no good to wish such things. I should have learned after Mom.

"Brother?"

I shake myself from my thoughts and look up at Al. I give him a small smile and grab a pen, pulling the notebook back over to myself. I know he is worried, it's my fault for that.

"Nothing Al, just tired is all."

I finish the circle, altering it as the calculations say I should. By the end of it, it looked much like Al's blood seal, only slightly different. Why did this circle have to be the one to bring our bodies back? Maybe. I'm not willing to get my hopes up yet.

"Done."

I hold out the completed array. Al looks up and takes the notebook in his baseball mitt sized hand. He looks down at it, then to me, nodding and standing. I do the same and we walk to the center of my dorm room. We clear the furniture out of the way, take out a piece of chalk each and begin to draw out the circle. I know we could probably do the transmutation without drawing the circle, but we don't want to chance it. We're risking enough as it is.

The last mark of the circle was drawn into place. Al and I stand there a moment, silent and I know we are both preparing ourselves. For another letdown or a long awaited success, either way. I try to calm my breathing, my heart pounding in my ears. I clear my throat and step into the center.

"I'll go first, Al. This way if something goes wrong-"

"But Brother-"

"No 'buts'."

We've already chanced far too much. I can't let my brother bear the brunt of anymore of my mistakes. If something goes wrong in this, it will be my skin, not his. I swallow hard and look up at him, nodding once. He kneels down, clanking as he does so, claps his hands and presses them to the circle.

Immediately I feel the electric spark of the transmutation. It spreads from my feet along my legs up into the rest of my body, spreading across every inch of skin and metal. I see the usual flashes of blue sparks erupting from the circle and wind kicks up from nowhere. I'm not too worried about this. It seems normal for a transmutation so far. It may just have worked! I look up at Al, smiling as I watch him waving at me-

Wait, waving?

I make to shout at him, ask him why he's taken his hands off the circle when I discover that while I'm moving my lips, forcing air out of my lungs I cannot speak. And if I am speaking, I can't hear it. This is not good!

I can no longer feel the electric spark of the transmutation and I am shocked to realize that my whole body has gone numb. I can't feel the cold of the dorms, the heavy pull of automail on the rest of my body… Something has gone horribly wrong!

I look up at Al, trying to signal him to get back, to get out. I watch as he stands, but rather than head for the door, he steps forward. Before I can stop him, the world goes dark and I throw my arms out as I lose my balance, falling fast towards the ground head first.

I flail, attempting to catch something, anything to keep me rooted in that one spot. I should have known it was useless and I wonder if I am actually screaming because I am trying to. All I see and feel is black and numbness until my senses are suddenly returned to me as I land roughly on something hard.

"Ouch!"

That something hard was a floor. I wonder if I've broken any bones and once I have concluded that they all are intact, at least for the most part, I lift my head and open my eyes.

This is not my dorm room.

This must be how she felt. I push myself off the floor until I am kneeling and I stare at my surroundings with wide eyes and my mouth agape. I was in someone's bedroom. I found that out by the bed with navy blue blankets that was merely a few inches to the right from where I had landed in a heap. I scowl and look up at the ceiling, speaking more to the Gate than anything.

"You couldn't have aimed a foot to the right, could you?"

I grumble and continue to look around. In the corner of the room, there was a dresser and a desk, both covered in intricate looking objects, including one that looked like a complex radio and another a screen with a large box beside it. Over the dresser is a mirror and I am not surprised to see myself with a scraped chin and a stunned expression. Moving on. There was a bookshelf beside the door, overflowing with books and small trinkets. I judge from these that it is a girl's room. Great.

The soft yellow walls are covered in posters of what I can only guess are bands and various famous people. I frown because I know none of them and I shake my head, deciding to worry about that later. The window is letting in a breeze and I take a small bit of comfort in knowing that where ever I am, it is at least still summer.

Something catches my eye. On the small night table by the bed, is a picture in a frame. One of a boy with blond hair and blue eyes, arms wrapped around a girl. A girl who was maybe a little shorter than I was, with flaming red hair and emeralds for eyes. She is smiling and hugging the boy back. I swallow hard, heart racing.

I now know whose room it is.

I hear footsteps outside the door and I throw myself back onto the floor out of instinct more than anything. The door opens and I hear someone enter, half whispering half singing a song that I have never heard before. I peak over the edge of the bed and watch as the girl in the picture walks over to the dresser, grabbing a small disc like one I'd seen once before and puts it into the complex radio, the song she had been singing beginning to play.

This can't be! This girl is dead! She died in my arms! This girl is dead!

But she turns and pulls her hair from where it had been held in a ponytail and shakes it out. I remembered what it felt like between my fingers and I straighten a little more as I watch her, biting my lip. She doesn't seem to notice me, however, and I hold my breath as she opens the dresser, pulling out a shirt. She tosses it on the bed without looking over and begins to lift the one she is wearing-

Woah! Okay, enough hiding!

I stand up and immediately she notices me in the mirror. She gives a shout and turns on the spot, staring at me wide eyes and clutching her chest in shock. I stare at her in much with much the same expression and shake my head in disbelief.

This girl is dead! I remember the day she died pristinely because it has haunted me for the past two months! This girl doesn't have a heartbeat! This girl is dead!

We continue to stare at each other and she takes a step forward. I watch as expressions of joy, confusion, sadness, hope and longing flash across her eyes. I know because I am feeling the same things. Her eyes scan me, then meet mine and I can only give a smile as she whispers.

"Edward…"

I don't know how, but Winnifred Radcliff was most certainly not dead.

So Ed is in her world, and Freddy isn't dead. YAY! Next chapter wont be up until maybe Tuesday, I have a term paper to write. Argh. Toodles!