Hey, an update! Woohoo! Hehehe...this chapter shows a little bit of Berenice's less desirable side, since apparently, everyone wanted to see that, but I haven't fully exploited it yet. Be patient, I'm sure it'll happen sometime in the story, but I don't know when. My stories write themselves, after all, I'm just the scribe. Heh.

Disclaimer: I do not own...oh, why do I always say this? You know that I don't own! Huh, what does that mean, anyway? Um, I forgot what I don't own, but I think that you all know. Just remember that I don't own it, okay?

Al placed his head in his hands and sighed. How could he handle this? He didn't like having to restrain his brother…okay, part of his brother…though he knew it was necessary because this part of him had no restraint. Apparently, the good sides of Ed had always kept his bad sides in check. He wondered if he would run into any other sides of his brother soon.

He continued to sit in the same position he was in for several minutes, rocking back and forth in worry. His brother was a water sign too, wasn't he? Wouldn't that bad side of him just be able to convert to his elemental form and escape? Then what would happen to his wife and children? Well, maybe he didn't have to worry about his wife, but he did his children. That Ed apparently had no qualms about killing someone that the complete being had loved, and that scared him.

Suddenly, Al felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head and looked into the face of Pisces. "I felt you worrying about your brother, so I thought that I'd come and try to help console you a bit."

Al offered a light smile, and then turned again and put his head back in his hands. "I'm not sure if anyone can make me stop worrying, but thanks for thinking about me."

Pisces sat down on the rock beside Al, and leaned over to him. "You don't need to worry about him converting to his native element. He can't do that unless he's whole."

Al jerked his head up. Had she read his thoughts? Oh…right, she had. She was psychic, wasn't she? "So…" he began, "There's something he can't do being separated like this?"

"There are a lot of things he can't do being separated like this," Pisces stated. "For instance, did you notice that that part of your brother never uttered a word, or even a scream of protest about being put in your closet?" Al nodded. He'd thought that odd. "Well, it's simply that he can't. None of the other parts of him can speak either. Physically, they're capable, but mentally and emotionally, they are not. It requires a whole person to be able to speak, due to the fact that it usually requires several different sides of a person to participate at once in order to communicate."

"It does, doesn't it?" Al mused. He had never really thought about it before, but it made sense. One had to pull from several different resources in order to communicate with another, and this piece of Ed could not do that, since he was only one of the sides. None of the others would be able to do it either, for the same reason.

Al stood up and dusted his pants off. "So, have you found out how to reunite my brother yet?"

Pisces shook her head. "No, but we're trying to find out. I wish that we remembered, but we lose some of our memories each time we're reincarnated, so…"

"I understand," Al said, putting up his hand. "You wouldn't happen to have any idea what happened to Winry, would you? She was part of Scorpio, after all."

Pisces shook her head. "I'm sorry, I have no clue. This has never happened before that I know of. I'm not sure what the powers that be have done to her."

Al sighed. "I understand, I was just checking. Thanks for all your help thus far." He turned and walked away, head down, staring at the ground. Pisces looked longingly after him for a moment, but decided against running after him. He apparently needed some time alone.

Al continued to walk in silence for some time. He hadn't brought along a watch, so he didn't have any idea how long he'd been walking. All he knew was that when he finally looked up, he was no longer by the river, but was now in the woods. He must've been walking a long time to have done that.

Well, he shrugged, there was only one thing to do, and that was to get out of here before it got dark and people started worrying. He looked around, but saw nothing familiar. Great. This was just great. How was he supposed to find his way out of here? He knew that he could just do a one-eighty and walk back in the direction he came, but he had no way of knowing whether he had walked a straight line or not, and he knew that he most likely had not.

All the same, he wasn't about to just stay here and let night overtake him without a fight. He took a deep breath and began walking in some random direction, hoping that he would find something familiar soon. He knew these woods pretty well, except for the part he was in of course, so he figured that he should come to something familiar soon.

His eyes were busy scanning the whole area for familiar sights that he didn't even notice the vines covering the path and the pit in front of him until it was too late to do anything about it. His ankle caught on one of the vines, and he fell headlong into the pit.

He sat up after a moment, still in a daze, and cursed himself for not watching where he was going. He began to frantically feel around for some vines or footholds, anything that would get him out of this pit, but to no avail. This pit was just too deep, and the sides were too soft. He wouldn't be able to get out of here without help.

With desperation, he began crying out for someone to come and help him. The chances of someone actually hearing him all the way out here were kind of unlikely, but he had to try, just the same. The thought of his wife and children standing at home, worrying about him was too much for him. A tear ran down his face, and he called louder.

His voice began to grow hoarse. No one seemed to be responding to his plea. It was no use. He sank down to his knees and sobbed. Why did he have to get himself into this mess, especially right now, of all times?

Just then, he heard some footsteps overhead. With renewed energy, he called out to whoever was above ground to please help him. Whoever it was that was up there didn't respond back, but Al continued to call to the individual anyway.

Finally, a vine appeared over the side of the pit, and Al grabbed it, a little over-zealously, and began to ascend it to the top of the pit. At last, his head poked out above the pit, and he reached for something to grab onto, and found that whoever had helped him suddenly grabbed a hold of his hand and was gently pulling him upwards.

With one last tug, Al was finally out of the pit, and was lying on his back in the foliage, gasping for breath. He closed his eyes for a second as he regained his energy, and then finally opened them again to see who his benefactor was so that he could properly thank him. He hoped that whoever it was hadn't run off yet.

Al soon spotted him standing just a few feet away, but when he saw him, his jaw dropped. It was Ed…or at least, another part of Ed. He hoped it was another part at least. Al stared at him in shock for several moments, and Ed reacted by returning him a smile. Yes, this was definitely a different one. That other one would never have smiled, unless he was plotting something evil.

"B-Brother?" Al asked, hesitantly. The side of Ed smiled even wider, and then came over and offered a hand to help Al up, which Al graciously accepted. "Th-Thanks," Al said, "And thank you so much for getting me out of that pit." Ed just smiled and shook his head. Well, thought Al, at least he seems to understand what I'm saying, even if he can't respond.

"Why don't we go home now, Brother?" Al suggested. Ed nodded, so the two made their way out of the woods, Ed leading the way, since he apparently knew where they were the whole time, and ran back to the house.

When they arrived, little Cassie was outside, playing with her brother. She took one look at Ed, screamed, and got up to run away. Ed responded by dropping to his knees and extending his arms, as if beckoning her to come back, and not be afraid. She hesitated for a few moments, looking between him and her father. Al nodded to her, trying to indicate that it was okay to approach him, so Cassie finally got her courage back and ran up to Ed, who promptly threw his arms around her. Al smiled at such a sweet sight, and turned to walk into the house.

As he was about to enter the house, he suddenly turned around and spoke to Ed. "Brother," he said, "We're trying to do everything we possibly can to get you put back together. Until then, I have to ask that you make sure that we always know where you are, okay? We can't afford to lose track of you." Ed nodded his response, so Al, satisfied, went into the house. He knew that he had nothing to fear from this side of his brother.

Al made his way into the kitchen, and was about to plop down into a chair, when Berenice spotted his dirty clothes. "Oh my gosh, Al! What have you been up to? Don't sit in that chair, go change your clothes! Oh, for goodness' sakes, Al, here, let me help you."

The woman, not even giving poor Al a chance to speak up for himself rushed him off to their bedroom and grabbed some new clothes, and then pulled him in the direction of the bathroom to wash him up.

"Sweetie," he said, a little uneasily, "I can take a bath by myself, you know. I've known how to do that since I was a child."

Berenice just gave him a dirty scowl for that comment, and then demanded that he get into the bath. He knew better than to argue with her when she got that look. He shivered at the memory of what had happened to him the last time he had crossed her. Angering a woman with a power like hers wasn't fun.

Before long, Berenice had Al cleaned up to her liking, and he came out to the kitchen and was finally allowed to sit in his beloved chair. Well, the chair wasn't really that special, it was just the bit about being allowed to sit in it that was. Yep, Berenice was one tough cookie when she got her mind made up about something.

Berenice came marching out into the kitchen. "Now, Al, how did you get your clothes so dirty?" She fixed him with a steely glare, and Al gulped. He knew that she wasn't going to clobber him for something like this, but still…that glare…

Finally, he managed to spew the whole story out to her. She seemed to understand, but she was still a bit irritated about the clothes. Oh well, you couldn't win them all, could you?

"So, where is this other Ed right now?"

"He's outside with Cassie and Perseus," he said.

"He's WHERE?"

Al put up his hands in self defense. "Relax, Berenice, he won't hurt them. I already told you, he's a gentle side of my brother. These different sides apparently can't do anything but be the one side that they are, so he really has no choice but to be gentle."

Berenice sighed. Apparently, she understood that, though she still didn't like the idea. Perhaps she just wanted to pick a fight of some sort. Al didn't know. He didn't particularly care, actually, just so long as she didn't decide to hurt him.

Finally, Berenice spoke again. "Well, I suppose to avoid confusion from now on, we'd better give different names to all the different Eds, since there are apparently going to be twelve of them. Let's call the first one…Mad Ed, for obvious reasons. After all, he's angry, and he's crazy, so the word works both ways."

"Right," said Al, scratching his head, "That'll work. Then this new one would be Gentle Ed."

"Works for me," said Berenice, pushing herself up from the table. "Dinner's almost finished. Would you care to invite our guests, including your gentle brother, to come inside?"

"Sure," said Al, as he stood up, "But what about Mad Ed? He needs to be taken care of too, or we won't be able to restore my brother to his normal state."

"We'll make sure he gets the care he needs later," said Berenice with a wave of her hand, "But we don't need to let him spoil dinner, now do we?" Al shook his head, and walked out the door. That woman was scary sometimes.

Heh heh heh...Scary Berenice, hmmm...Anyway, hope that you liked the chapter. Please leave me a review if you want me to update soon, heh heh heh. Hope to see you soon!