A/N: Hey guys! How's life? I'm up at my grandparents' place right now, and I have nothing better to do then update. Well... I should probably be working on my big fic, but right now I want to write this and Full Blown Nightmare.
!Shout outs! I'd like to thank QueenBeatsAll for reviewing. I hope you're not too upset anymore now that I've updated :3
Well let's get this show on the road! I hope you enjoy!
On the way to their hotel, the brothers attempted to explain this worlds' alchemy to me. All I really understood by the time we got to the building was that you needed an array, "a transmutation circle" they called it, and that there was something about equivalent exchange. Meaning what you get will be the same as what you gave. It reminded me of the pushy Honors teachers that always lectured about how "the grade you get is a reflection of how much effort you put into your work."
A scowl appeared on my face with this thought. Screw that. I worked too damn hard on that final essay last semester to have only earned an 80…
Their hotel room was on the second floor. Edward opened the door and let me and Alphonse go in first.
I was surprised to see their room. It was very neat, something one wouldn't usually expect from a couple teenage boys. I shouldn't have been surprised, knowing how clean my friends kept their two story house. Assuming they were alike, a small hotel room shouldn't have been an issue.
Stop comparing them! I mentally yelled at myself, bringing my hands up to my head to tug on my short hair. They are different and you need to get that through your thick skull!
The sound of the door closing snapped me back into reality and I let go, stuffing my hands into the front pockets of my jeans.
"Okay," I mumbled. "I'm in alone in a room with two guys…"
"I already told you we wouldn't do anything," Edward said, shaking his head again. I smirked at his reaction and took advantage of the opportunity I was given.
"Hm? What's wrong small fry? Never been alone with a girl before?" I teased him before laughing. I glanced over at him and noticed the pissed off expression on his face that was tinted pink from anger. His hands were in fists and I could help but start laughing even harder, knowing he was doing everything in his power to keep from exploding.
"What's so funny?" Alphonse asked me, confusion in his voice.
I was almost doubled over from laughter and it took me a couple seconds to calm down. "He's hates when people call him short, just like Eric!" One glance at the still pissed expression on his face was enough to get me started again.
"Who's Eric?" he asked, still confused.
Smiling, I made my way over to the couch and sat down. "He's part of the explanation I was eventually going to get to."
"How 'bout you explain now so that things'll start making sense?" Ed said as he stepped across the room and behind the chair in front of me.
I leaned back in the cushions and folded my arms over my chest. "Hm. I guess I should start from the beginning." After a couple seconds, I came up with an explanation that I assumed they'd be able to understand. "Well, to start off with I'm from a different world."
Their reactions told me they didn't believe me.
"You're kidding me," Edward said. I shook my head and he shifted where he was standing and leaned on the back of the chair.
"Nope," I said casually. "This world and my world are connected by something that I don't really understand. Apparently I was originally born on this world, but then I was sent over when I was about four years old. I don't have any memories of this place and I want to figure out what happened."
"How were you able to travel between the worlds?" Alphonse asked me.
I looked up at him, craning my neck slightly to meet the gaze coming from the helmet that was nearly seven feet up in the air. "Alchemy did it. When I was sent the picture of that transmutation circle, it mentioned something in a recurring dream I'd been having for a few months. I freaked out and ran over to Eric's house. I explained the situation to him and he helped me draw the circle. I got a message shortly after that there was something missing. The circle needed my blood for it to activate. I found a nail and cut my arm. Eric thought that I was going too far when I was told to hurt myself. But there are things that you just have to do, no matter the consequence, you know?"
There was a sullen look on Edward's face that caused me to furrow my brows. I wonder what's eating him up all of a sudden…
Alphonse broke down the awkward wall that was starting to build up. "Uh, Reeva? You keep mentioning your friend, Eric. Who is he?"
A smile touched my face and I rested my neck on the back of the couch to stare at the ceiling. "Eric is awesome," I started, staring off into space and remembering the ten years I'd known them. "And so is his younger brother, Max. To give you a general idea of the kid he looks exactly like Edward here; golden hair and eyes. The braid is the same too, actually. Max looks almost the same, but his hair is shorter and his face is more of an oval shape." I paused, still thinking about my best guy friends.
Edward cleared his throat, pulling my attention to him. "So your friend that happens to look just like me helped you draw the circle. Anything else about him that we should know?"
I bit my tongue before going on. "There is something. It basically explains why you look like him, but I'm not sure if I should tell you."
His eyebrow rose. "It can't be that bad."
"Okay," I sighed, leaning forward slightly. "Then here it is. Because of the connection, everyone that exists on this world also exists on my world. Coincidentally enough, you and my friend Eric just so happen to be doubles of each other."
The room grew completely silent. He was speechless for a few seconds while his brain tried to process this.
"So you're saying that your friend and I are exact versions of each other?" he summed up, saying it like a question.
"Uh… I guess," I said. "I'm not too familiar with the whole concept of it to give you better answer, but that's close. My friend has all of his limbs intact, so there's one aspect of your lives that's different."
"So that's how you knew how old I was," Alphonse stated, attracting Edward's and my attention. "If Ed and your friend Eric are doubles of each other, then that means that Max and I are doubles."
I nodded. "That's what I'm assuming. Thing is that Max is shorter than I am, so it doesn't seem like you guys are all that much alike."
This is really weird. I'm supposed to be the only original. How is it possible for him to exist as someone that looks this different?
The brothers went stiff slightly, pulling me from my thoughts. My brows furrowed in confusion when they did so.
Edward changed the topic in a matter of seconds. "I guess that's also why you thought that I was Eric. It makes sense that our being doubles led you to think we were the same person."
A sigh escaped from my chest and I slumped. "Yeah…," I started, bringing my hand to the back of my neck. "I'm sorry again for hassling you earlier. He was the last one I saw before I was pulled over here, so something in my brain told me that he'd been brought over too. Other than the red light, the last thing I saw was his face before I faded away into this never-ending darkness."
They stiffened again. This time, my eyes narrowed into a glare and I frowned at them. "What the hell is with the two of you?" I demanded. This seemed to shock them back into reality.
"What do you mean?" Edward asked me, his brows furrowed in confusion.
"You keep spacing out whenever I mention certain things, and it's starting to get on my nerves," I said, folding my arms across my chest. "I've told you my story, so how 'bout a few details on yours?"
He sighed, glancing down before once again meeting my gaze. His expression was a mix of emotions that I couldn't quite understand and I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Let's go down to Central Command," he said, bypassing my demand. I was taken aback and my eye started to twitch with anger. I opened my mouth to retort, but he continued talking. "Maybe Lieutenant Colonel Hughes can help us out."
A low growl resonated in my throat, but with a sigh I let it go. They'll have to tell me eventually, I thought.
"So what's Central Command?" I asked, letting my previously stiff expression soften.
The sound of metal on metal let me know Alphonse looking down at me. I glanced up to meet his gaze. "The Central Command Center is the building where the military is governed by our leader, Fuhrer Bradley. Our friend Hughes works in the information department, so he might be able to tell you something about what happened."
"If sending you over was military action then it's pretty likely that there'll be something," Edward said as he stood up straight from behind the chair in front of me. "If not, we might still be able to find birth records or something else that might help you."
A smirk touched my lips and I stood up. "You guys must really want this circle if you're willing to go this far."
"We have our reasons," he said, trailing off as he stepped over to the door.
The walk to Central Command was quiet, neither of the three of us saying much of anything the way there.
I can just tell that people are staring at me. These two already seem to attract enough attention, but now I'm here!
Desperate to hide myself from the eyes that were staring at me, I flipped my hood up and stuffed my hands into my pockets.
"What are you doing?" Edward asked me. I looked at him from the corner of my eye and shook my head.
"I've got this tight feeling in my chest that only comes when people are looking at me," I explained. "I'm not from here, so people are staring."
"You have cat ears on your hood, and you think that'll make people stop staring?"
I felt my face heat up and flush in embarrassment, and at that moment I was extremely grateful for the hood, cat ears or none. I didn't care about that anymore. It helped me hide the fact my face was red, and even if he wasn't actually Eric I still refused to let anyone see me blush.
"Shut up," I hissed.
I heard him sigh and let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding.
Once I show these two the circle, I wonder if they can reverse it and send me home. My fingers crossed in my pocket and I closed my eyes for a second. Please let me be able to go home.
"There it is," Alphonse said as we neared the end of a street. Curious, I lifted my head. My eyes grew wide at what I was seeing.
In the middle of the city was a giant concrete wall, and from the hill we were on I could see past the wall and at the massive building inside. It was a massive building, several times large than I'd anticipated. Almost five times as long as the white house, with two other buildings coming forward that were attached to the main building.
My jaw dropped at the sight and my hood fell back. "Whoa," I said, shocked into a state of awe. "This is incredible."
"You get used to it," Edward commented as he continued forward.
I closed my mouth, but my eyes remained wide. "How can you be so blunt!? This is cool!"
"The shock wears off after you've seen it enough times." His tone was uninterested and his gaze was distant, as if he was thinking about something.
These two are no fun, I thought with a childish frown.
The guards at the front of the gate stood at attention and saluted us. "Welcome back Fullmetal," one of them said. I frowned at the name, but decided to assume it was normal.
Edward lazily waved a hello to them. I swallowed as I followed behind him. I met the gaze of one of the guards and he narrowed his eyes at me. He put an arm out to stop me from going forward and I let out a surprised squeak.
"State your name and business," he demanded.
My eyes grew wide and I stammered, all my thoughts traveling to the gun at his side. "I, uh…"
"It's okay, she's with us," Edward said, coming to my rescue.
Upon hearing this, the guard moved away so that I could come through. Still scared, I stepped forward cautiously.
He looked like he would've killed me! I thought, my heart racing and my breathing shallow. I took a deep breath to calm down and sighed. Talk about an adrenaline rush.
I followed them across the courtyard, where I saw several other soldiers. All of them were wearing the same blue uniforms, and there were even some woman standing about.
That's cool, I thought, smiling to myself. They've got woman in the military, whereas we've only recently allowed for them to join. This place isn't too bad.
I felt a wave of relaxing energy wash over me, but it shattered the moment I saw him.
My eyes grew wide again and I took to hiding behind Ed. I looked around his shoulder and noticed that he was giving me a confused look.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"It's his double," I said in a quiet yet panicked tone.
His brows furrowed at this. "Who are you talking about?"
"Elric brothers! It's good to see you!" the deep bass called from across the hall. I let out a squeak again and hid myself even more. For once I was happy to be only 5'4''.
"Uh, hi Major," Edward said, his tone starting to become nervous.
"Hello Major Armstrong," Alphonse greeted, his voice shaking as well.
"What brings you to Central Command?" the giant man asked.
Ed grabbed my arm with his metal hand and pulled me out from behind him. I swallowed again and wanted to run away.
It really is his double, I thought, taking notice of the distinguishable mustache and strange hair curl.
"We're here helping our new friend, Reeva," he said, letting go of my wrist. I rubbed where he'd grabbed me while he continued talking. "She needed some information and we thought that Hughes could help us out."
Armstrong's eyes narrowed slightly. "You're not planning on giving classified information to an average civilian, are you?"
"Of course not!" Ed said defensively. "We're just going to see if we can dig up any personal information on her. She wants to know more about her family and stuff like that."
There was something inside me that told me he didn't believe this story, but my fears were cleared away when he smiled. It was hard to tell through his mustache, but I knew his smile and the air about him seemed to sparkle from his personality. "Good then. Good luck you three, and tell the Lieutenant Colonel I said hello."
The brothers saluted him and Armstrong did the same. I stared at him with a blank expression as he walked away.
"He's just as weird on this world," I muttered, letting my now sore wrist fall to my side.
Ed raised an eyebrow at me. "What's Armstrong like on your world?" he asked me, careful to keep his voice down.
"His name is Mr. Kingsman, and he's the most enthusiastic World History teacher ever known to man," I said. "He scares the crap out of everyone because of his massive size."
A smirk appeared on his face for the first time since I'd met him when I said this. It was strange. On Eric smiles seemed so natural, but with Edward he had such a serious air about him that it was hard to believe I'd mistaken him for my best friend.
The smirk on his face brought a smile to mine for a brief moment. "So what's up with the weird nickname?" I asked as we rounded a corner.
His eyebrow rose at this. "What nickname?"
"The one the guard back there called you 'Fullmetal' if I remember correctly."
He nodded once at this. "That. Every State Alchemist is given a title that is also used as their code name. I was given the name Fullmetal when I joined about three years ago."
Three years, I thought. "Hm… Wait! You joined the military when you were twelve!?"
"Yup," he said. "I've been busting my tail ever since too."
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion and I brought my volume down. "Why the hell would you do something like that at such a young age?"
He went quiet. "I'll explain it to you later," he said as he stopped in front of a door. He knocked on it thrice before someone came forward and opened it. My eyes grew wide when I saw yet another familiar face in a uniform.
Mr. Herman!?
"Hi Ed," he said cheerfully, a smile on his face that brought one to mine. "Hey Al. I see you've brought a friend."
Still smiling I stepped forward and offered a hand. "Hi," I said as he accepted my shake. "My name is Reeva, please to meet you."
"Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes," he said as we stepped back. "So what brings you two to my office?"
"We were hoping you could help our friend," Alphonse said.
I elbowed Ed in the side to get his attention while Al distracted Hughes. "Hey," I said quietly as he met my gaze. "Can we trust this guy?"
"Yeah, why?" he whispered back.
"If I told him what I told him what I told the two of you, would we be able to trust him to keep a secret?"
A nod from him was my answer. "We've been able to trust Hughes for a while now, and telling him would help us make progress."
I nodded back. "Uh, Lieutenant Colonel?" I said. The room went quiet as everyone turned their attention to me. The tight feeling in my chest came back. I hated having strangers stare at me. I cleared my throat and went on. "There are some things you need to know about me before we do anything more..."
"So you're saying that you're from a parallel world and everyone that exists here also exists there," Hughes summed up.
I nodded. "Yes."
"And that you were born here, but for some reason you were sent to the world you call home when you were four years old. You also have no memories of anything that happened before hand."
Nod. "Yes."
"So now you're here bribing Ed and Al with a transmutation circle that you'll show them after you get the information you want."
"I… I wouldn't say 'bribe', exactly…" I trailed off and sighed. "Okay, sure. Whatever. So can you help me?"
He put a hand to his chin and focused on something while he thought. "If you're telling the truth then you're not technically an illegal alien or immigrant; you were born here, therefore you're a legal citizen. I have nothing I can report on that matter. As far as records go, you must've been declared missing at some point and then dead after four years. It's been eleven, but it's possible we still have something on a case like this. For all we know it's not a closed case just yet."
Hughes stood up from where he sat and stepped over to a door that was at the other side of the room. He opened it and turned on a light. "Come on in you three," he said.
I brushed my hair back behind my ears and stood up, pulling the bottom of my hoodie down so that it didn't bunch up in the middle.
The three of us stepped in to the small room. It was filled with shelves and file cabinets. Hughes was standing next to one that said "1903" on the drawer. He patted the top to get our attention.
"This cabinet has records of all missing people, kidnappings, and deaths that occurred eleven years ago," he said. "I give you three permission to search it to your heart's content. If you can't find anything here, then I'll pull out the later records for you to go through."
My eyes lit up and I gave him a smile. "Thank you so much Lieutenant Colonel," I said cheerfully.
He smiled back at me. "I never thought I'd see the day when somebody would be happy with knowledge that they could potentially be declared dead."
"I'm alive and well here, and according to state records back home I'm very much alive," I said, still smiling. "If I'm dead here, then I guess I'll have to live with it."
He laughed at this. "Well I'm going to go bother Roy, so you three are free to look through those until I get back."
"Thanks again," I said. He gave me a smile and stepped out of the room.
Once he was gone, my brows furrowed. "Who the hell is Roy?" I thought out loud.
A scowl appeared on Ed's face as he answered me. "Colonel Roy Mustang, also known as my commanding officer."
"You mean the guy you report to?" I asked, the unfamiliar military term throwing me off.
"Yeah," he stated flatly. He sighed before returning his focus on the files. "Come on. The faster we get this done, the faster we can get out of here."
The feeling of discomfort and distrust seemed to radiate throughout the room. It left a bittersweet taste in my mouth as we started to go through the files.
We made it halfway through the first drawer by the time Hughes came back. There was nothing useful in any of the files we'd searched. I sighed as I stuffed some papers back into a file folder.
This seems pointless, I thought as I returned to my pessimistic ways. There's just so much for one year's worth of time. It seems almost impossible!
Moaning quietly, I flipped my hood over my head and pulled it over my eyes as I lied back on the floor.
"Reeva?" I heard Eric say.
I let out an irritated groan at my old friend. "Reevie's brain isn't working right now," I said lazily, rolling onto my side. "Leave a message and try again later."
After a few seconds my exhausted brain started working again. Wait a second... Eric isn't here. That was Edward. I scoffed at my sudden realization. Duh.
"Did you guys find anything useful?" Hughes said from the doorway. I tilted my head up to look past my black hood.
"Nope, nothing," I grumbled, sitting up. "We didn't even make it through the first drawer of that thing."
He nodded at this and looked over the scattered papers that were strewn across the floor. "Well I'm going home now, so you three need to clear out of here."
"Yeah, okay," Ed said. "We'll put this stuff away and head out."
Hughes nodded and left the room. The sound of a door opening and closing told me he was officially gone.
With a tired sigh, I started forcing papers into their appropriate files. Home… I need to get what I want and leave ASAP. I really hope that Eric found a way to cover for me. I realized what I'd thought after the fact. Fuck it. I'm going to be in deep shit when I finally get home.
A loud yawn escaped from my lips. Knocking the hood back off of my head, I stood up and stretched my arms. "Holy hell raisers, am I tired," I complained. A spark went off in my head concerning where I'd be staying while here. I groaned again and my head slumped forward.
Shit, I should've put more thought into what would happen if I listened to that guy. My hand went up to my neck and started to massage the small knots that had developed over the course of my long day.
A flash of gold in the corner of my eye caught my attention. I bit the inside of my cheek as I thought it through. I've crashed on Eric and Max's couch plenty of times before during Mom's business trips...
I slapped myself across the cheek while the brothers behind me refiled the cabinet. They paused at the sound, but disregarded it and carried on. Dammit! For the last time, stop that! These are not the boys you've known for over ten years! God only knows what they'd say if I asked to stay with them. I'm a goddamn stranger to them, even after the long explanations.
"Um," I started, trying to find enough courage to speak up. My voice squeaked the first time, drawing attention to myself. I tried again. "Uh, so I was wondering if it'd be okay for me to sleep in you guys' hotel. I don't have a place to stay, unless I stick around in that alley."
They were quiet as they thought this over. I had no idea what to expect. Were we friends? No. Allies? Maybe. Could they eventually get me home? I could only hope.
Alphonse was the first to speak up. "We have a big enough hotel room that having an extra person around shouldn't be a problem," he said, taking my side. "What do you think Brother?"
My heart tugged when I all I could hear was Max. The familiar nickname he used towards Ed made me hide my sad face under my copper hair.
Ed responded with a sigh. I looked back up at him, eyebrow raised. "It'll help us to keep an eye on you, I guess. And I'm not so heartless that I'll throw out on the streets."
Happiness nearly overwhelmed me, and while my lips turned up into a wide smile I had to resist the urge to glomp him to the ground. "Omigod thank you!" I exclaimed. I brushed my hair behind my ears and looked over the two of them. Ed was staring at me, and I couldn't tell what Al's expression was due to the helmet.
"Uh, sure?" Ed said.
The three of us finished putting away the files and we left the same way we came.
The air outside was chilled. I zipped my jacket up and stuffed my hands into my pockets in an attempt to stay warm. Spring nights were always colder than days. I felt lucky the weather here was similar to that back home, even though I wore my hoodie no matter the temperature.
I waved goodbye to the guard as we exited Central Command. He raised an eyebrow at me before waving back.
Haha! Nice job Reeves, I thought, smiling to myself. A cold breeze brushed against the back of my neck, wiping the smile off of my face. Grimacing, I flipped my hood back up. Screw whoever saw the cat ears, I was cold.
"So where are you guys from?" I asked. "Wouldn't need a hotel if you had a home."
An uncomfortable silence followed my question. I bit my lip, taking notice of an obviously sensitive topic to late.
I cleared my throat. "Okay then, new topic. How's life?" I tried.
No response.
An unhappy moan sounded from the back of my throat. I now see I probably shouldn't pry, but it's too damn quiet!
The nerves ate at me for what felt like forever until we finally made it to the hotel and then their room.
Ed unlocked the door and let me and Al inside before he joined us. I looked around the room and took notice of things I hadn't seen before. In a far corner was a door to what I assumed was a bathroom, and behind a separate wall and counter there was a small kitchen area. It reminded me of a studio apartment, but there were two beds instead of a usual one. I sat down on the brown couch that was in the middle of the room next to a coffee table. My thoughts traveled to a couple hours ago when I told the two about my situation.
A thought came to me as I turned around to face Ed. "Equivalent exchange," I said.
His brows furrowed. "What of it?" he asked me.
I repositioned myself on the couch and set my folded arms on the back of it. "You told me before that you would explain why you joined the military. Well, you've heard my story so equivalent exchange is now in effect, right?"
Ed scoffed at me. "I guess you were listening."
My lower lip pushed into the top one as I frowned at this. "Of course I listened. I'm not that absent-minded."
He shook his head and smiled solemnly as he sat on the bed at the far side of the room. "I'm now regretting telling you about alchemy."
"Ah, come on," I said, my frown shifting into a smirk. "You're an alchemist that works for the military. It makes… some sense I guess."
His eyebrow rose. "Only some?"
"More sense than what's going through my head right now anyway."
Ed shook his head at me again I heard Al chuckle from the other side of the room.
The smirk on my face fell when I realized he was avoiding the situation. The air went still and I cleared my throat to grab their attention again. The both of them looked at me and I brush my hair back behind my ears to get it out of my face for what I was about to do.
"Ed," I started. I looked at him with pleading eyes. It was a dirty trick to use this look on him. Even the most straight-faced person would be putty in my palms when I brought out the big guns. "Will you please tell me?"
The look on his face nearly made me crack. I couldn't tell if it was guilty or if it was sympathetic. Whatever the hell it was, he let out a sigh and caved.
"Fine," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I'll tell you."
I let my hair fall back to cover my right half of my face. Works like a charm.
A/N: Hi again! So right now Reeva is about to try and get some information out of these two. What will happen? Well, you'll have to wait because I'm only half-way done with the next chapter. You'll get to read from Eric's point of view and learn more about him and Max.
I've just left you on a cliffhanger! Mwhahaha *_* How was it? I'd like some more reviews on this, but I promise I won't beg or demand. Remember I'm open to criticism, so if there's a problem please let me know. Take care!