See Prologue/Chapter One for standard warnings and disclaimers.

A/N: To be technical this is two chapters in one day. Aren't you two lucky? Though since it says I updated on the 26th I decided it was fine to post another one. I hope you enjoy.

ACT I: The Doors of Fate Open

Section II

words: 4001

Al wasn't gone all that long and when he came back it was at a pelting pace down the side walk, his face alight with glee, "Brother! Brother! Guess what!"

Ed, who had shifted so that he was laying on his side on the narrow hood with his head propped on his palm up near the windshield and his other arm wrapped protectively around the leather satchel like it was a teddy bear rather than a bomb, blinked lazily at his younger brother and yawned, "Ehh?"

Alphonse skidded to a halt, boots grating over the concrete, a few feet in front of the car and propped his fists on his hips. Squinting at his brother in an approximation of a studying glare he drew out, "Bro-ther."

Ed growled, flailing out a foot in a half-hearted attempt to kick his younger brother. "Whaaat?"

"You were napping weren't you!" Al accused.

"So what if I was!" Ed barked, closing his golden eyes again.

Alphonse rolled his eyes, "You're incorrigible."

"Blah blah blah." Ed groused, lifting his hand off the satchel he shoved his pinkie finger into his ear and wiggled it around, "Can we go now?"

"Ah!" Alphonse's demeanor immediately changed and he leaned forward, pulling himself onto the rounded curves of the hood and crawling up next to his brother. "That's right! I wanted to tell you what I found out." Ed grunted and Alphonse took that for the go ahead as he settled with his hands behind him, palms flat against the hood and legs dangling over the side. "Stonehenge is really close by here! I heard some people talking about it, and when I asked the locals it was true. We actually passed it on our way in I guess, but I didn't notice."

Al grinned widely, tilting his head back so that the ponytail he'd allowed to grow out again shifted over his shoulders. His feet rocked back and forth, the toes of his shoes tapping together. Edward couldn't help the small, slow smile that curled his lips at the image of pure boyish delight his little brother made just then.

Turning wide, imploring, brown eyes on his big brother Al asked, "Can we go? Please, Brother?"

And, really, how could Ed say no to that? "Yeah, sure. Why not? It could be fun."

"Yes!" Al cheered, and promptly tackled Ed as well as he could. The two tussled for a moment, careful of the satchel nearby, mussing each others hair and laughing in unrestrained joy.

A few passers by stared, but the two brothers didn't care. They were enmeshed in their own little world where the only thing that was important was each other. They had looked after each other for so long, relied only on themselves for as long. They may have had help in the past, but lately it had been only them. Their bond had only grown.

Edward dug his fingers into Al's ribs causing the boy to squeal. Al writhed away from Ed's attack and threw himself over the edge of the car. He landed, cat like, on his toes and hands before scrambling to the other in the the vehicle where he finally straightened.

Leaning against the back of the car Alphonse peeked around the side and gave his brother a baleful look, "That's cheating, Brother!"

"Pffft." was Ed's succinct reply. Then he stretched like as lazily as a cat, arms extending over his head, crossing before parting. Edward prowled off the hood of the car with boneless grace, stopping only to roll his shoulders free of built up tension. A mischievous hunting smile unfurled across his face, more teeth than anything else.

Al squeaked then ducked back behind the relative safety of the car and crept to the other side. Peering around he found Ed watching him, having followed to the other side. Giving another squeak Alphonse ducked back and retreated. This continued for awhile, neither of them wanting to relinquish their positions, until Ed tired of the game and took his hands off the hood of the car. He sprinted down along the side causing Al to squeal again and take off along the other side, too slow. Ed caught him. Alphonse was dragged into a headlock, his elder brother's fingers digging into his sides.

Al squirmed and writhed, trying to twist out of the reach of Ed's tickling fingers but the older Elric kept a firm but careful grip on the younger with his automail arm.

"Brother! No! Stop it! Please, Brother!" Al gasped out between fits of laughter, his voice cracking and breaking on the end.

While Al's voice for the most part was settling into a deeper tone there were times when his voice still broke, and it never failed to make Ed laugh, nor Al flush. Still, it was like a reminder that Alphonse was real, and human, and growing.

People stared as they passed by; some smiling at the two brothers, others shaking their heads at their frivolity.

Alphonse shoved at Ed and finally wrenched free. Ed whirled away planning to get out of reach before Al could enact revenge. However, his bid for freedom was cut short when he ran smack into someone walking down the sidewalk. The other person was knocked to the ground. Sheathes of paper went flying, books tumbled, and what looked like rolled up maps fell away. They bounced with a hollow sound against the walk before rolling aside.

Edward stared down into a familiar face framed by glasses knocked askew while Royce Mustang stared back up at him for a beat before his dark eyes skated aside and down. The dark haired man reached up and carefully righted his glasses.

"M-my apologies." That painfully familiar voice was used in such a starkly unfamiliar tone: So self-conscious and uncertain.

Ed crossed his arms over his chest, fists clenched tightly so he wouldn't grip himself, and tilted his head to put his nose in the air. It took every ounce of self control to keep his mulish frown from transforming into a sneer, "Yeah, I bet. Learn to watch where you're going, jackass."

"Brother!" Alphonse's scandalized voice sounded from behind him, but Ed paid him no mind.

Giving his brother a dirty look Al moved passed him to where Royce was trying to gather all of his dropped things and began to help the man; gathering a sheaf of loose papers he tucked them into a neat pile.

"Here you go."

Royce looked up from the messy collection of texts and paper he held against his chest, eyes stopping for a moment on the papers held toward him before sliding up to Alphonse's face. Al simply smiled, as friendly as ever. Royce carefully took the papers, eyes wide with surprise, and tucked them in amongst the rest before tottering precariously to his feet.

"Th-thank you. I am terribly sorry for the trouble."

Alphonse waved his hands in the air, smile taking on a slightly sheepish edge, "Nonono. There was no trouble. Don't mind Brother, he's just a little cranky." Ed's 'HEY!' went ignored as Alphonse rubbed the back of his head. "Just be careful, okay? Wouldn't want you to loose something!"

"Yes, of-of course. You two take care." Royce demurred, nodding to them before heading down the walk, head bowed.

"You to!" Alphonse called after him, arm lifted and waving. Once Royce disappeared around the far corner he turned to regard his brother with a scowl.

"What?" Ed barked, meeting Al scowl for scowl.

Ed's face was, despite the knit brows and tense frown, a vision of discomfort to Alphonse. Al let out a sigh and allowed his shoulders to slump as he decided to let it go. He couldn't really be angry with Ed just then; it was obvious that dealing with this world's version of Roy Mustang was putting Edward on edge for whatever reason.

Shaking his head Al conjured up a smile for his brother, "Come on I still have to find out the best route to London. You're going to help this time!"

Ed sighed, but could see the immovable determination in his brother's face, "Fine. Let me get the damn thing."

"We really should buy a road map." Alphonse said with a great deal of irony coloring his voice.

Ed snorted, "Probably."

Al craned his head, the crown of his skull digging into the uncomfortable seat of the car, "You're the one who didn't want to buy one!"

It hadn't taken them all that long to get reliable directions, they'd gone through this often enough. Now they were back in the car, lazing. They really should have left, but neither of them particularly felt like it yet. Both Elrics were in the front seat Edward on the passengers side, sitting at a slight angle with his legs thrown over the side of the car, slumped down, and the uranium bomb laden satchel held protectively in the cup of stomach, chest, and thighs. His head rested on the back of the seat; his golden eyes staring at the sky through hooded lashes. Alphonse lay on his back with the backs of his thighs pressed against the side of the car and his knees hooked over the edge; his feet dangled. One arm curled up and over the back of the seat while the hand of the other rested on the bottom of the steering wheel's loop.

"Maybe we shouldn't have borrowed this car from Mabuse's friend." Ed mused.

Al relaxed his neck again to take in the sky. The morning had been as clear and sunny as the night before had been clear and star-filled, but now wispy gray clouds were gravitating into the area where they joined and bloomed like cotton flowers. Even as he watched two of the wispy things melted together to form a larger, thicker cloud. He didn't doubt that there would be rain before long.

"You're the one who wanted to." Al reminded him. "You said we needed to be more mobile."

"It's true." Ed groused.

"I never said it wasn't." Alphonse agreed, smoothing his brother's ruffled feathers with the ease of long practice.

Ed rolled his eyes. He hated how Al could do that! He could diffuse any argument before it even got started just by being agreeable.

Alphonse heaved a sigh and, with a shove, righted himself. Twisting his legs back into the car as he sat up properly. "We should get going. I still want to see Stonehenge!"

Ed gave a moan at the idea of moving, his head lolling. Still the elder Elric shifted around with lots of grumbling and an over dramatic slowness that forced Al to bite the knuckle of his pointer finger to stifle his snickers. Ed gave him a sardonically put upon look that wouldn't have been out of place on a cat.

Alphonse started the car which sputtered and grumbled to life. Ed's attention soon zeroed in on the scenery and he allowed his thoughts to carry him off.

It was true enough that it had been Ed's idea to borrow the car when Mabuse had offered to get them in contact with a man who would lend them one. Up until then the two Elric brothers had been hitch-hiking across Europe, or using public transport if they were lucky enough to have money from the odd jobs they'd do when they could. They'd still spent many a time avoiding detection as they stowed away on trains, though. Ed had learned that sometimes it was best to allow ones morals to be flexible. He may still have a great many of them, and a great many ideals, but his life here had forced him to relax them and come to terms with that fact.

He could look back and admit he'd still been more of a child than he had thought at the time. Sometimes, in the darkest moments, he mourned that innocence and wished he could regain a sliver of it. Edward Elric may have given up his right to being an innocent child the moment he began to contemplate Human Transmutation, and dragged his little brother with him down that path of sin, but he had still had something of a child's innocent naivety and idealism. Most of that had been shattered beneath the blunt hammer of reality.

Beyond the verge of the road the grass had been cropped short by cattle, or other means; though even some longer stands of it rolled by in emerald to dark green patches. Copses of dark trees clustered together like groups of chatting neighbors and above it all the sky went from blue to milky gray, to a dark steel coloring with only hints of white where the sun managed to force a watery ray through. The first few sprinkles spattered against Ed's face, and he blinked out of the trance the travel had put him in.

Edward found himself rocketed out the last dregs of his stupor by a sound like a gun shot. Alphonse swore which only brought Ed further from the feelings of sleeping lassitude. Al rarely swore.

"I think we just blew another tire." Al sighed, applying pressure to the break and bringing them coasting to a stop on the road side with a faint crunch.

Edward growled.

The two brothers clambered out of the car and checked the narrow tires on each side. Alphonse waved him over to the driver's side front tire a moment later. It was, indeed, very much partially shredded and completely flat.

"We have the worst luck." Ed griped.

Alphonse dug his fingers into the base of his short ponytail at the bottom of his skull and gave a slight tug in aggravation, "Of course."

The two shared a glance then looked up at the sky at the same time, sighed, and said as one, "Elric Curse."

The Elric brothers shared a conspiratorial grin. They'd each developed a rather morbid sense of humor as of late. It had become apparent that while optimism and sheer gut force determination could keep you going for awhile, eventually you just had to accept and make the best of things. Being able to joke about horrible circumstances was an amazingly useful coping mechanism for them both.

"Do we at least have a spare?" Ed asked, his voice already tinged rather heavily with resignation.

Al gave a chuckle that wasn't in any way related to humor and looked up at Ed from where he crouched alongside the ruined tire, "We used the one we had during that dead end lead in Wales a couple weeks ago, remember?"

"Fuck." Ed growled succinctly. Then kicked he the ruined tire for good measure.

Alphonse braced his hands on his knees and pushed himself upright, dusting his palms off on the dark gray material of his trousers, "It's times like these that I really miss Alchemy."

With a laugh that was bitter, but more melancholy Edward brought his hands up and snapped them together with a sharp clap in an all to familiar gesture. The lack of alchemical charge singing through his veins when he did this always made him feel incomplete. It was almost as bad as when his limbs were detached; a horrible aching feeling of something that ought to be there but isn't. He could still remember how in the early months after his first trip through the gate to Earth he'd find himself trying to use his Alchemy on occasion. Like a phantom limb, it still felt like it was there, it just wasn't.

Al was coping both better and worse than he had, was. While Alphonse had only been without Alchemy for a little more than a year he hadn't had to have a taste of it again only to give it up.

Ed dropped his hands. "There's not much we can do about it anyway."

"I think there's a house not far back. We could go see if they can give us a hand." Al said, changing the topic before Ed could get too mired in the thoughts so obviously lingering behind the gold of his irises.

Turning his head the gold haired man starred back along the road. The breeze picked up, ruffling his fringe and making it tickle his cheeks and jawline. Fattening rain drops tapped against the side of his face; chilly despite, or perhaps because of, the relatively warm weather.

"Probably for the best." Ed agreed at last. Reaching up he smudged away the droplets of water with his gloved hand before moving alongside the front seat of the car.

Alphonse headed all the way to the back while Ed retrieved and donned the leather satchel. Then, together, they unfolded and pulled the canvas roof of the car into place and closed it up as best they could as protection against the oncoming wet weather. By the time the had finished the rain was coming down hard enough to leave visible spots on the road where the thick droplets landed. Ed reached over and tugged Al's hood up over his head causing the younger Elric to laugh and give his older brother a shove. Laughing, Ed stumbled backward feigning hurt before he flipped his own hood up over his golden blond head. The two brothers headed off down the road, walking side by side; close enough that their shoulders bumped on occasion. It was also the perfect distance to make it easy shove to the other if they wanted to. All in good humor, of course.

The smell of rain, wet grass, and wet earth pervaded their senses as they walked a quick pace along the roadside. They passed thick scraggly untended hedges, and delineating fences of wood posts and wire. A huddle of dairy cattle at one point, watched them from under the dripping bows of a crooked tree, chewing absently at their cuds. The rain hissed as it gathered strength, slipping from fat thick drops that fell few and far between to a perpetual fall of smaller ones that painted the ground in rain soaked darker colors.

The ground greedily drank until it could contain no more and left the rain water in a muddy sheen at the surface where grass stalks and flowers bent their heads under the weight of rain water, dripping their burdens into puddles forming in the soil below. The Elric brother's boots thudded heavily into the standing water, squelching and splashing as the two picked up their pace. Heavy sodden jackets flapped around water and mud spattered legs as the two jogged down the road. Through the mist created by the rain a squat, rambling little building hove into view surrounded by a thick growth of trees and underbrush.

Alphonse reached the residence first as Edward was taking more care with his pace in difference to the bomb he carried and paused on the edge of the road. A small white washed wooden gate stood between two hedges that seemed to be fast overgrowing. Reaching over the gate Al squinted through the water dripping off his hood and falling from the sky as he fumbled with the latch before he finally got it free. The gate came open with a sharp tug, the hinges creaking plaintively. Edward stepped through first and Alphonse followed a beat later.

The dirt path had been turned to a thick soup of mud that stuck to their boots and coated the hems of their jackets and pants all the more. Hedges hemmed them in on either side, growing wildly and unkempt in a riot of twisting branches and leaves. Ahead of them the little house sat amongst the tangle, and looking very much like that very tangle was attempting to swallow it whole. Slopping and dark gray the roof set above the rather rambling white washed building. It had, perhaps, two floors.

Trellises covered in ivy so thick one could barely make out the wood of the trellis or the white of the wall they leaned against sat to one side of the door. The door itself was painted a red that had faded away with time and weather. A Rhododendron, let to grow with its own mind, crouched between the ivy and the door like some strange and patient pet. Above it all a red brick chimney stood guardian, a lazy curl of smoke listing from the top; it was blown away and dissipated almost as soon as it emerged.

The other side of the door was taken up by a long narrow flower bed in which clustered a multitude of flowering plants: Birdsfoot Trefoil, Charlock, and Bluebells grew alongside Lupin, Daffodils, and Irises; all competing for space and yet somehow coexisting in a wild yet appealing array.

Off to one side a garage-cum-tool shed stood just as, if not, more covered in ivy than the house itself. It had a look to it as if it had once served purpose as a stable or barn of some kind. Along the near side several disused garden tools hung on a decaying wooden rack. Several sparrows were using it as a convenient perch as they flicked the wet from their wings.

The door was in a slight recess which guarded them from the rain and allowed the two siblings to shake a bit of the water off their coats. Edward batted at a droplet covered cluster of Rhododendron blossoms that were intent on tickling the back of his head and shoved his hood back. Alphonse shook back his own hood and reached up to rap the backs of his knuckles against the door.

Silence greeted them, and just as Al reached up to try knocking again there was muffled thump from inside.

"A moment! One moment!"

Ed and Al exchanged glances. That voice had sounded oddly familiar. There was a rattle, and then the heavy wooden door swung open with a groan. Standing there, framed by the doorway and the warm glow of the lighting behind him was Royce Mustang. He blinked at them over his glasses, then reached up to adjust them. Edward turned and began to head back out into the rain.

Alphonse shot his hand out and caught Ed by the hood of his black jacket, tugging his errant sibling back to his side while smiling disarmingly at Royce, "Hello again!"

Royce gave another bemused blink then smiled a little hesitantly, "Oh... Hello. You're the two from Monsieur Havoc's cafe. And the ones from.. from, yes, before."

Al extended his free hand, "I'm Alphonse Elric, and this is my elder brother Edward."

"Royce Mustang." Royce said, and accepted the handshake. He cast a glance toward Ed who was pouting valiantly. "Was there something the matter...?"

Immediately taking up a sheepish look Al laughed a bit nervously, "A tire on our car blew, so we were hoping whoever lived here could either lend us a spare or... direct us where we could find one."

"But we're fine!" Ed spoke up in a loud, obnoxious voice. "Look, Al! I think the rains clearing up. I bet we could make it back to town no problem!"

A low grumble of thunder punctuated the end of Ed's sentence.

Royce gave an amused sound and stepped back, "Why don't the two of you come in and wait out the weather. I don't mind, I rarely have company."

"Thank you very much for your hospitality, Mr. Mustang." Al said, grinning in relief.

"How about I just--"

"Take your boots off, Brother. We don't want to track mud all over his house." Alphonse's grin never faulted as he pulled Ed after him.