Thank you wolfwind, kibawhitefangshadowolf, Me And My God Complex, lightpaws, Chrosis, Elric-chan, and CrystalShifter for taking the time to leave me a review!

Extra Comments (Q & A):
lightpaws: I don't know if I'm ready to write any smut scenes yet; especially this early in the story line. If I ever did however, it wouldn't be some "wham, bam, thank you ma' am" kind of deal; it would be meaningful and romantic, as the genre implies. However, I do promise to put at least one small romantic scene in this fanfic, but when and where, I haven't yet decided.

Elric-chan: At this point in the storyline, Edward thinks he doesn't need to worry about his auto-mail limbs, because he doesn't plan on changing again any time soon. However, he'll learn later that he can't avoid the change, and will be forced to use the most convenient possible.

Pairings: Edward/Winry and Roy/Riza (later chapters)
Disclaimer: I have no ownership rights to FMA. I'm just an obsessed fan, who wanted to write a story involving some of the characters from the anime/manga.

Spoiler Alert: There are some references to mid-season episodes in this chapter. You've been warned!

Special thanks to: Hiromu Arakawa, Square-Enix, Bones, Funimation, and Viz, for bringing FMA to life

Chapter 2 - Bitten

Edward slowly opened his bloodshot eyes, and turned his head to see Alphonse, seated in a chair, which was pulled closely to Edward's hospital bed. Seeing his younger brother slouching in the chair, Edward could tell Alphonse was asleep, although he technically could never rest.

A sudden flash back of the night before made Edward bring his hands to his face, and was comforted to see his arm had turned back to its original form.

Alphonse awakened from his hibernated state, upon hearing the bed sheet's rustle, and lifted his head, to see his elder brother.

"Brother, how are you feeling?" Alphonse said in cheerfully.

"I feel great," Edward said, propping himself up against the wall, at the head of bed. He rubbed his eyes lightly, to rid himself of his cloudy, waking vision.

"I'm glad you're alright, Ed," Winry said, seated in a folding chair, legs crossed, with one arm resting on the other, in the same spot were Edward had hid in the dark from her the night before.

Remembering the previously frightened appearance of Winry's face; Edward timidly raised his vision to her, but ceased to hesitate after seeing a friendly smile on her face. However, Edward could hint that something was missing from her eyes. They didn't seem to shine as brightly as they used to. Edward gulped, dropping his gaze to his hands, and twiddled his thumbs.

Alphonse sensed that there were things that needed to be sorted out between his brother and Winry, in private, and stood up from his chair.

"I'm going to go tell the nurses you woke up, Ed. They said they wanted to give you some medicine."

"What?!"

Alphonse laughed, jogging out of the door and closing it behind him; leaving the two to talk amongst themselves.

After a few moments of deafening silence, Winry spoke.

"What was it like?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean..."

"... Yeah."

Edward couldn't find a way to put it into words, and decided to change the subject.

"When did I change back?"

"About five minutes after you passed out. Alphonse and I were the only ones who saw you like that, so your secrets save, Ed. But the doctors and nurses were pretty confused to see you sprawled out naked on the floor."

Both Edward and Winry's faces flushed and gave way to a moment of awkward stillness.

Edward coughed and laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head.

"They must think I'm some kind of lunatic, right?"

"... Edward?"

"Yeah," Edward said, bracing himself for what would come next.

"What happened to you? What would make you change like that?"

Edward remained quiet, staring down at his hands once more.

"Come on! Don't leave me in the dark this time, Edward. Please... Tell me."

Edward toke a deep breath, and began to recall the day of the attack. The day he'd been bitten, and unwilling changed forever.

"Should we stop by and visit the Colonel?"

"Why do that when we could buy some firecrackers and light 'em off in our faces?" Edward replied, sarcastically joyful.

Alphonse sighed. Even though Alphonse thought the word "hate" could never be taken seriously enough; he knew Edward full-heartedly hated Lt. Colonel Roy Mustang. There was simply no two ways about it.

Walking down the street together always made the duo stick out. However, taking a stroll down one of the many empty back streets of Central made them look like two blue birds in a flock of canaries. It was Edward's idea to take the short cut down this street, to avoid walking on the main road, which would eventually lead to Central Headquarters. With dark clouds filling the sky, the only sources of light the two could follower were the dim lamp posts, marked every twenty feet along the sidewalk. Edward preferred to travel though Central during the night, to decrease the chances of being spotted by familiar military personnel.

Edward stopped suddenly, and turned around, looking past Alphonse, back up the winding paved road.

"What is it brother?" Alphonse said, while turning around to see what his brother was looking for.

"I hear a vehicle coming," Edward said, making small clouds of steam with his breath.

Edward reached into his pocket and flipped out his official State-Alchemist watch, opening it for a brief moment, then closing it and returning it to his pocket.

"It's nearly one in the morning; there shouldn't be anyone on the streets this late."

"Then what are we doing out here?" Alphonse questioned, turning back to Edward.

Edward snorted, waving a hand, and continued to walk on. Alphonse followed and quickly clanked up beside him.

The headlights from the approaching vehicle behind them cast shadows of the brothers on the worn down buildings around them.

"Just ignore the car," Edward said, looking up to Alphonse, who nodded, remaining silent as the car began to pass them.

As the car sped by, it hit an unseen puddle of water, causing a splash of water to fly up on Edward, showering him with dirty rain water from the prior night. Ignoring the car wasn't an option anymore.

"Watch were you're goin', dumb ass!" Edward screamed loudly, drenched and red with anger.

The car slammed on the brakes, halfway down the street, and began to go in reverse, toward the brothers.

"Ed! They're coming for us!" Alphonse squealed, trying to hide his massive frame behind Edward.

The car parked in front of the brothers, and the driver door opened and slammed shut with a bang.

Edward couldn't believe his luck. The one car that goes by them is driven by someone with a serious case of road rage. He thought of making himself look intimidating, but realized that it was better to give an apology, then to ask for one.

"Hey," Edward started, his voice wobbling with a tinge of fright. "I'm sorry for saying that, it's just you drove by so fast that when you hit that puddle it-"

"No need to apologize Edward." Riza said as she came around the front end of the car. "I was given the order to catch your attention, to verify your identity."

"But Alphonse was walking right beside me!" Edward hollered, making a point that not very many people walked around with a big suit of armor accompanying them.

The passenger car door opened, and out stepped Roy Mustang, putting on his alchemic fire-starting gloves as he did so.

"In that case, it was just for kicks," He chuckled, unable to hold back his laughter any longer.

Edward was starting to shake with fury, and charged at the Colonel, spitting forth every vulgar name in the book. Like always, his younger brother held his squirming frame as he vented out his anger, only a few feet away from Mustangs face.

Once Edward had calmed down, Alphonse set him back onto the sidewalk. It was a ritual that they'd gone through many times before, when encountering each other again. Roy never got tired of it.

Shots rang out, making Edward and Alphonse fall on their knees, covering their heads.

"What the hell is going on?" Edward panicked, while chips from the building behind him began to fall around him; due to Riza's gunfire.

"Damn it! It was following us this whole time," Roy cursed aloud, glaring at the top of a nearby building.

Alphonse spun around, looking up as well, just in time to catch the glimpse of an inhuman shadow lunge across a roof, narrowly dodging several bullets.

"What was that?" Alphonse inhaled sharply.

"Do you boys remember when laboratory five was destroyed and all those chimeras and who knows what else was released in its wake?" Roy said, making himself back to back with Riza.

"Yeah," Edward said, standing back up after hearing the gunfire stop. "What about it?"

"That thing... Whatever it is most likely escaped and went into hiding after being freed in the explosion." Riza said, looking back and forth, gun posed and ready to fire in a split second.

"And you were looking for Alphonse and I, to come and help you guys get rid of the pest, am I right?" Edward said, dusting himself off.

"That's the jest of it," Roy said, tightening his jaw muscles.

An ear piecing roar came from the north side of the street, where Roy and Riza had driven down toward the Elric brothers, causing the whole group to turn in its direction. Then it grew disturbingly silent, and the only sound they could hear was their own breathing.

A groan came from the parked car, and the tires began to lift off the ground.

"Move!"

The car came flying at the dodging group, and crashed into the building behind them, causing a massive explosion.

Edward could hear Riza's gunfire again, and when he turned around from where he had fallen, he could see the chimera in complete detail, from the light of the burning building.

It stood roughly eight feet tall, covered in filthy, dark-brown fur. Its muscles flexed underneath its coat, showing a site that could make even Sig and Armstrong feel uneasy. Thick, crocked claws came from its pawed hands and feet.

Edward had a hard time believing what he saw next. He began to think he was hallucinating things, when he noticed that the chimera's head was that of a monstrous wolf-like being. Almost like a werewolf... a lycanthrope... a shape-shifter.

Taking a second look at it, Edward realized that werewolves could exist, but they were technically still chimera's; almost similar to the ones that traveled with the homunculus Greed. They were able to appear as normal humans, but upon closer inspection, they had powers and abilities normal human beings could never possess.

Edward snapped back to action when the wolf-chimera glared straight over at him. Its large, glowing red eyes made it look almost demonic. It dropped its jaw, letting out another loud roar, and revealing long rows of sharp, jagged fangs. Snapping its mouth shut, it curled back its cracked, black lips to form a devilish grin.

It readied to leap at the tumbled over alchemist, when I bullet nailed it in the right shoulder, making it stumble back and hold its shoulder; groaning from pain and frustration.

Edward pushed himself up off of the ground, figuring the chimera was temporarily stunned, and run toward Alphonse. The chimera saw Edward's movement, and leapt after him, disregarding the small bullet wound.

"Brother, watch out!" Alphonse wailed, upon seeing the chimera lunge for his brother.

Edward whipped back around, seeing the chimera in midair, just a few feet in front of him. He could smell its foul breath and feel its slobber sprinkle on his face. He raised his auto-mail arm to brace himself for the attack; knowing he wouldn't have enough time to transmutate it into a blade.

A swift blast of heat and light flashed in front of Edward, knocking the oncoming chimera out of the air, and crash down, onto the cemented sidewalk, several feet away.

"Whoa! That was too close for comfort," Edward said, backing away, and feeling the presence of his younger brother behind him. Roy walked over to the brothers, holding his right hand out in front of him, ready to snap again at the pile of burning fur. Riza followed, close behind.

"Nice shot, Riza."

"Thank you, Alphonse," Riza said, putting her gun away in its holster.

"You make the perfect bait, Full Metal," beamed Roy, letting his arms relax to his sides.

Edward gritted his teeth to keep from lashing out at the Colonel, in respect. The man had just saved his ass, but he wasn't about to thank him for it anytime soon.

The mass of flames sprung back to life, shaking out the fire, and catching the group off guard. With a shriek, it pounced at Edward again, not stalling for Roy and Riza to stop its advances. However, Alphonse had sensed it coming, and pushed his older brother to the side, taking the full blunt of the blow against his hollow frame.

"Al!" Edward called out, as he fell backwards from the push. He raised his head up, but quickly put it back down when his brother was thrown inches over his head, and onto Roy and Riza. Now Edward was left defenseless.

Panic began to set, in Edward's heart.

"Keep your hands off my brother!" Edward yelled hysterically, clapping his hands and then placed them on the cement in front of him, pulling out a medium-sized spear of stone. He rushed at the chimera, and swung hard, hitting it on the rib cage, and breaking the spear in half. Edward pulled back the broken half in his hands, almost proceeding to plunge it through the chimera, when a large clawed paw slashed him on the right side of his face. The force of the hit made Edward go into a fierce spin, until he hit the scorched pavement, dizzy and bruised.

Wasting no time, the chimera successfully sprung unto Edward, sinking its canines deep into his left shoulder. Edward flung his head back, screaming in agony, as the chimera continued its torture by shaking its head back and forth rapidly, cutting more flesh and muscle tissue. Steam began to rise off of Edward's shoulder, as his hot blood spewed all over the side of his face, the concrete beneath him, and the chimera's gruesome snout.

Still mauling on Edward's shoulder, the chimera began to drag him down the sidewalk. Edward could see the ground beneath him start go by faster, when an unexpected jerk set him loose from the jaws of death and skid onto the pavement; his blood still spilling profusely.

Alphonse had grabbed the chimera by its legs, and swung it into the burning building. Inside, the chimera hit a support beam, setting of a chain reaction to cause the whole building to collapse on top of it.

Edward turned himself over, feeling a gush of blood come out as he did so, and yelled incoherently for help. His eyes began to grow dull, and his heart rate slowed. His wounds ceased their bleeding; almost as if there was no more blood to be drained from him.

Edward struggled not to close his eyes. He still had to bring Alphonse back to his original body; he couldn't afford to die now. The feeling of rest was too much for him, on the other hand. Edward closed his eyes, and powerlessly let the dark night consume him.

Winry let the story sink into her mind, thinking of how the chimera could have affected Edward. There was only one plausible way.

"Do you think it changed you because you were bitten and clawed by it?"

"It was the bite. I know that for certain."

"Have you ever read any books on witchcraft or mythology?" Winry questioned, trying to think of possible links to information on werewolves.

"Quite a few, actually. Those kinds of books are always put next to books on alchemy, so I've skimmed over them, when I'm bored. I remember reading one article, in a folklore book, about shape-shifters. It happened to talk about werewolves and methods of being infected by the "curse". One way, is by being bitten by another werewolf, or just having their saliva touch broken skin. I would have never guessed it would be accurate in those aspects."

Winry quietly wondered if she had any books like that back at home, but stopped when she remembered Granny Pinako didn't approve of those sort of things in the Rockbell household.

"What other things did it say?"

"It said that werewolves change under a full moon, and turn into a huge wolf monster, driven by anger and animalistic passions."

"That's not very accurate," Winry said, recalling Edwards's behavior and setting, from the night before. "The moon wasn't completely full yet, and you didn't try to eat me or anything."

"Yeah," Edward replied, "But I did fill really strong emotions. It was hard to control myself, at some moments."

Edward remembered when he jumped out of the darkness, unprovoked by Winry. The look on her face and the sound of her scream still haunted him. The last time he had seen that look was when Alphonse had brought his bloody body to the Rockbell door step, pleading to save him.

"Edward?" questioned Winry again, breaking Ed away from his memories. "What will you do if you change again? Your auto-mail was what caused you to fall over. I don't know if I could make your auto-mail any bigger, without affecting your height issue in the process."

Edward leaned back and let out a laugh, paying no attention to the gently implied "height" comment all together.

"What's so funny?" Winry said, trying not to laugh at Edward's sudden goofiness.

Edward combed his auto-mail hand through his fair-haired bangs, wearing his signature grin, and displaying his usual confident and cocky persona.

"I'm not going to change again, Winry. I can control myself now. Last night, I just wasn't feeling to well, that's all. Trust me; we won't need to bother with my auto-mail. Everything will be okay."

Winry gave a weak nod, and then turned to look at the window, feeling the heat come through it. It was a wonderful day outside, with barely any clouds.

"Winry."

"Hmm?"

"I promise," Edward started, entering a serious, but caring tone. "I will never risk scaring you like that ever again."

Knowing Edward since her early childhood; Winry could always tell that Edward was true and sincere about the things he would share with her. Whether it be a memory, feeling, or object; if it connected him to her, Edward would emphasize its importance to their friendship. It was one of the many things that Winry valued in Edward's character.

"It's a nice day. We should ask if you can go for a walk."

"Sounds good to me," Edward responded, fixing his eyes on Winry, with a gentle smile.

After Notes-
I think this chapter actually made more new questions, then answering old ones. All shall be explained, in due time of course. Thank you for reading, and if you could spare some time, and leave a review, I'd be very grateful to you.

With openness and respect,
Heza Ulric