And here we find out more about Gina's secret that she is unaware of, as well as the reason Richter wanted her so badly.

Chapter 4: Stepping Through

Ever since my encounter with Matusek's daughter I have been wondering what it is that makes her so different. I remember seeing Envy for a few short moments after he came through the Gate searching for me before the raging battle separated us permanently. I recall a similar solidity surrounding Regina, though hers was much stronger. He was made that way...she was born that way. What does it mean and how are they connected? Do those forces oppose each other? There was a stagnant air about Regina that I didn't notice right away. Is it because of Envy's presence in this world where he doesn't belong? The only way to find out is to remove him.
from the journal of Hohenheim 11 months prior to his death

Gina had no idea how long she lay on the cement floor of her cell staring at nothing. It could have been hours or minutes. She couldn't tell the difference.

"I'm such a fool."

It was her own fault, in part, but some of it had been out of her hands. All her efforts to escape to the countryside and find relatives had been thwarted. Buses or trains had been out of service or headed the wrong direction. At the risk of being caught if she had stayed in one place, Gina had been forced to take them. Over the course of a week she'd made her way into Germany, almost to Munich, every passing mile against her will. It was as if something were driving her in that direction.

Only after she thought of that had she set aside her grief and remembered Hohenheim's letters; especially his last. Deciding she had to go find him, Gina completed the journey only to be disappointed. Why had she been led to the city if he was not there?

Now she knew she was meant to find the Elrics, then the safety deposit boxes...but how did being caught by him fit into any great plan? Unless this was as far as she would ever go.

Gina knew without a doubt that he meant to kill her. He hadn't hesitated to condemn her parents. After all that time working alongside her father, he turned around and betrayed him! They had been peers at the college and shared research with one another. Richter must have learned about Hohenheim at Munich when he had been hired by the Germans and connected him to the man her tatko spoke of constantly.

Her eyes came into focus after a time and she realized that she'd been gazing at a corner of paper poking out from between the boards of the nearby bench. Curiosity prompted her to get up and go look, but she was completely confused when, after tugging it out, she saw her own name scrawled on the front.

It was from Noah!

Gina, I have always been able to see the pasts of others as well as their thoughts, but not until today was I ever able to see the future. That glimpse cost me. My power—my curse—is broken. Even now I can hardly recall what I have seen through others over the years.

It is no loss to me. Thank you for taking from me a gift I never asked for. At least I know I will not go to my death seeing the thoughts of my executioners, and that is enough of a reward.

But my fate does not matter as much as yours. I knew you would be here in this cell and that I would no longer be there when you arrived. I knew that he would take you away to create a path. I knew that Ed and Al would only be able to use their powers around you. There were many more unidentifiable flashes and then my foresight failed.

But I remember seeing a cross in your hands as you stood alone in a lonely desert, and that was the most important of all, even though you did nothing but weep over it. And then you were no longer alone.

My time is over. Thank Ed and Al for me. My few experiences with them were precious. Thank you again for breaking my curse.

Noah

Gina didn't understand. There was so much happening that she'd never had a chance to learn. She was lost wandering around in the dark while everything seemed to hinge on her being able to find her way without stumbling. Feelings of vulnerability and helplessness overwhelmed her.

What was she supposed to do?!

Before she had time to fully comprehend the message left for her by the gypsy, a door opened down the hallway. Gina shoved the letter into her pocket and resumed her portrayal of a dejected prisoner. But her mind whirled, trying to find a way out.

"It's regrettable that we can't convince you to aid our cause, thereby avoiding so much needless trouble," the former college professor said, his voice betraying any disappointment his words implied. "As it is, from what we have gleaned out of Hohenheim's journal, I believe we can continue with or without your personal permission."

His voice had taken on a different tone that made her look up. She caught sight of a syringe and the breath caught in her throat. Her mind went blank as every thought fled in panic.

:Q:

"But that doesn't explain everything. Why is she so different?" Al insisted.

"He only has a short explanation here. The rest was in his other journal because they were meant to be read side-by-side. Basically he gives a partial explanation as to why we have parallel selves. He isn't really very confident about the answer since it has something to do with a piece of Amestris's history he has no knowledge of, but the fact remains that we all have parallel selves, right? All of us except Gina, that is."

"You mean she's the only one? Then why would she be born here on Earth and not Amestris? And why just her? It couldn't be something hereditary, could it?"

"Not according to our father. He described it as 'evident design of non-parallel human singularity'. Definitely not a mistake. His theory was that every few generations some random person is born who has an alchemic field around them. The reasoning behind it was almost too difficult for him to put into words, but he mentioned something about there not being parallel worlds per se, but different territories of the same world united by parallel people. Especially by those who aren't parallel. He met a couple in the past few hundred years, which is why he recognized her, but he doesn't go into them."

"Pretty deep. Do you understand it?"

"To an extent. I think it means Amestris and Earth were linked somewhere in the past before a conjunction divided them. The landscapes are different, which shows that they don't copy each other. In fact the only things that are the same in both places are humans. Then there's her. He could tell Gina was different just by looking at her. She wasn't necessarily more real, but there was something undeniably solid he couldn't ignore about her appearance."

"Solid? Did you notice?"

"No. But he goes on to say the solidity is so natural that it's hardly discernible to others. Since he had used the Philosopher's Stone to stay alive for hundreds of years, he had defied the natural order of life, making him unnatural. Therefore the most natural things were grossly more obvious to him than they would be to us."

Al considered his brother's words. He wanted to meet his father more than ever now, but the door between Life and Death had closed and he wouldn't even entertain the idea of reaching across that barrier. Still, he couldn't help feeling a pang of regret.

"We have to get to her. Once we get close we can use Alchemy, then we can escape."

"You really think it'll be that easy?"

"We don't have another choice, Brother. How hard do you think it'll be to break the lock on that door?"

Ed flexed his automail arm and the corner of his mouth tilted upward. "Give me three seconds."

:Q:

Richter and his assistant walked up the stairs, Gina being pulled along. She kept stumbling and shaking her head trying to clear it, but whatever chemical they had used was beginning to affect her like a sedative. The old man's words were spoken clearly but she had trouble paying attention.

"While our world is drowning in war and death, we can migrate to a new one. According to much of Hohenheim's text, this Amestris-land is mostly rural and only just coming into a proper mechanical age. I am intrigued that they lack any air vehicles beyond the rustic sort, yet have conquered the connection between mind and machine. Automail will become my passion once I go there."

The assistant yanked Gina upright once more as they reached the final floor and exited the stairwell. They locked the door behind them carefully. "Sir, is it true the safe in the lab was empty?"

The reminder of the missing bomb struck a chord in Richter and his face turned sour. Darting a glare at his prisoner, he found something utterly distasteful about her.

"She won't be needing this."

Richter began to lift the crucifix necklace from Gina's neck but her hand shot up and she seized hold of it. They came to a halt in the hallway.

"N-n-no!"

There was a wave of dreadful numbness running through her body, making her hands shake and her voice waver. Even her thoughts were beginning to scatter into a million pieces, but the idea of her crucifix being taken away forced her into one place, here and now, to fight him.

"It's m-mine!"

He was surprised how much strength she had left after the injection, but he'd already given her the maximum dosage. There was maybe half an hour with which to work before it was too late. There was no time for her to waste energy on something as pointless and futile as this.

"Give it to me."

"No!" she yelled.

"Sir, why not just let her keep it?"

"Because I don't want her to have it!" he snarled at the man. With a vicious yank the chain broke and he threw the crucifix to the tiled floor.

Gina screamed intelligibly and tried to go after it but the assistant held on tightly to her. All the strength faded from her eyes after a moment and she went limp. She was so tired and everything was painful...

Several minutes later other man spoke. "If I may ask, Sir, how do you intend to make the connection to the other world if she isn't even conscious enough to do it on her own?"

"Do you honestly believe this child knows how to make it there anyway? Hypnotism is the only sure way to do it. One of our colleagues has volunteered his services in this manner for passage." Richter halted abruptly. "Speaking of which."

The assistant became nervous. "Sir, I've kept silent ever since I learned about your organization! I've done what I could to help, but I can't afford the amount you're asking."

"We have no room for excess baggage."

A gunshot echoed in the corridor.

:Q:

"Don't you think it's odd that Herr Richter would order all of us to go looking for the escaped prisoners? There's only two of them," one guard noted his fellows as they patrolled the street. There were two other trucks of soldiers also making rounds.

One if the others in the group nodded in agreement, but the third caught his arm in a menacing grip. "Don't speak of your betters that way, private. You do not question orders. He has his own unit inside the compound to keep the area secure."

"You trust those high-and-mighty soldiers? I don't! They never take watches or any responsibilities. And what about those civilians? Why have they been bringing them to the top floor ever since that gypsy girl was shipped off to Auschwitz?"

"That is Herr Richter's business and not yours."

"I don't like it. Something's going on right under our noses and we haven't got a clue what it is or even whether it's in the best interest of the Third Reich. What if it isn't?"

"Shut your mouth and keep looking for the prisoners."

:Q:

Al took the lead, hurling himself up the stairs. At every floor they tested to see if their Alchemy worked but so far, nothing. They had already reached the fifth floor and encountered no one.

"I know there weren't that many soldiers here before, but now it's like the building's empty," Ed said. "It's too quiet. Do you think they evacuated?"

"If they did, we're wasting our time going upward. Do you think they took her someplace else?"

Just then they came to a door and the stairs ended. This was the sixth and last floor.

Al tried the door and found it locked. Looking back at his brother for a moment, he slowly clapped his hands and placed them on the door. Sparks flared and it exploded outward in pieces. Without waiting for the dust to settle, they charged into the hall.

Almost immediately after entering they slid to a stop. The body of a young man lay face-down on the tiles, a spray of blood on the wall and a stagnant pool of it surrounding him.

"Why do you think they killed him?"

Ed knelt down, failing to disguise his disgust. "No telling now. I'm not even sure when. It couldn't have been too long ago: the blood hasn't completely congealed. Maybe ten minutes or half an hour. I'm not an expert."

Just off to the side, a glint of metal attracted Ed's eye and he walked over to see what it was. He reached down and gripped Gina's crucifix in his hand before hurrying to catch up with Al who had gone ahead. He slipped it into the pocket with Hohenheim's journal to keep it safe.

The younger Elric burst into every room they passed, but the only things he saw were empty cots and small signs of those who had been staying in them. Finally he came to another locked door.

"Gina!" he pounded on it.

"Don't announce we're here until we take them by surprise!" his brother shoved him aside and with a clap changed his metal arm into a weapon. In the next second there was no longer a working door between them and the room.

He surged inside, expecting to face a line of men with rifles or nightsticks at the very least. But even if there had been other people in the room, his attention would have been diverted by the Gate against the far wall. Its light washed over everything with a radiance that burned his eyes. The room was nearly as large as a gymnasium and it took the two brothers a few moments to realize there was one person left: Gina.

Al rushed over to the table where she had been laid. His brother looked at the floor and carefully picked up a discarded needle.

"They drugged her, the bastards!" he snarled.

"I'm going to try to help her."

"You've never done any sort of healing Alchemy, Al. How do you even know where to begin?"

Instead of answering, he clapped his hands then placed them lightly on Gina's temples. She burned at his touch and sweat drenched the roots of her hair. The younger Elric closed his eyes to focus.

Measurements of the elements in her body ran through his mind and he discovered the imbalancing drug. Detection was child's play; the cure was the real problem. He could change it into something else, but he didn't know what the sudden modification could do to her body.

What was he supposed to do?!

He didn't realize there were frustrated tears in his eyes until Ed gripped his arm. Al was ready to jerk away, but the look on his brother's face made him pause. His golden gaze focused on her with a fiery fierceness that could have stopped an army of chimeras.

"I'll try."

As Al stepped back, he noticed the Gate's size fluctuating out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't care. Saving Gina's life was all that mattered.

The alchemists had stood quietly for several minutes, Al observing and Ed concentrating, before a glow started beneath his hands. Gina suddenly jerked and twitched, her face contorting into painful expressions too difficult to watch. It dawned on them that the Gate had vanished completely.

There came a weak, warbling cry from the figure lying down, and then complete silence.

Ed leaned heavily against the table and Al leaned over the girl to see if she was all right. Suddenly Gina gave a scream and arched her back. Before either of them could react there was a blinding flash of light!

I visited Matusek several times over the course of two weeks, but on the final day I had a conversation with him that made me step back and take a look at both myself and my life in a way I had never done before:
"You believe in God with such passion, but in the moments when He is needed most where is He? Why does He hide?"
"Surely you know the story of Jesus when his parents searched desperately for him for three days. He was in the temple the whole time. If they had simply searched in the right place they would have found him. Where have you been looking? Science and mysticism can only take us so far, you know. Religion goes so deeply there is no end to it, whereas everything else has its limits."
"Why are you so certain I can find Him in a church?"
"Have you even looked? By your words I can safely assume you haven't, or at least not for a very long time. He isn't hiding. You are the one hiding from Him."
There have only been a handful of times in my life when I was rendered speechless by an opposing argument. The accusation was true, and though the last thing I wanted to do was admit to it, I had promised I would not lie to others or myself any longer. Instead I considered his words and accepted them in the humblest way I could. That is the day he gave me a Bible.
from the journal of Hohenheim 20 days prior to his death

Some people never learn. You can't kill off the main characters! Well, except for the most unpleasant or annoying ones. And of course someone like Aerith or Zack, but that's a whole new can of worms. (Crisis Core rules! Sephiroth is the bomb when he's not evil!)

Okay, here's another personal: if you were to do a cross-over of FMA, what other game/anime/cartoon/movie would you choose and what characters?