AN: Happy belated New Years everyone! Wanted to put up a chapter before school started again!

Disclaimer is in the first chapter.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Not a new chapter, sorry! But I've changed the info in the first chapter just for heads up. I wrote the preview like 5 months ago but as I wrote the story, I've changed some things. Not BIG changes but mostly to clarify things. I've taken out his STYLE of fighting cause I had no idea what I was writing there and it doesn't even fit with the story. Also, I've taken out that Shiro is an alchemist prodigy. Thanks to a review, I see that it was a mistake in the first place, because I'm not even incorporating that into my story so I just let some people down because I already said Shiro was NOT a gary sue.

Sorry!

Red eyes stared back into the same red eyes.

Shiro was in the Pinako's bathroom yet again. It had become a habit to go to the bathroom everyday now, one that started ever since he himself had committed the taboo.

Ever since the trio came to stay at the Rockbell's house, Shiro locked himself into their bathroom for at least an hour. And he couldn't help but stare avidly into the mirror.

When he saw the mirror, Shiro couldn't help but be horrified. Every. Single. Day.

In the mirror was a youthful white haired boy with red eyes. He looked to be in the late teens. And that was the problem.

For the past few years, Shiro didn't age. He didn't grow, not even an inch. For god's sake, he didn't even grow hair anymore.

He was supposed to be older, so much older, so why did he still look like a teenager?

Shiro looked down into the sink, away from the horrid image reflected back to him. He had to fight the urge to smash the mirror into pieces.

And like every day, he couldn't help but think, 'What am I?'

A knocking sound brought him out of his depressing reverie.

When Shiro opened the door, he saw Ed there, a steel arm poised to knock again.

Despite the depressing ambiance that surrounded Shiro, he couldn't help but smile at the sight of the automail because it was a sign of hope.

Recently, a state alchemist by the name of Roy Mustang had come by, lured by the rumors of some alchemy prodigies around this area. He came by the Rockbell's residence after he had seen Trisha's… body and found Ed and Al, both of them half dead and devoid of life. A few choices words and the colonel soon left but not before Ed and Al got the fire back in their eyes.

Ever since then, Ed was resolved to join the military and begged for Pinako and Winry to make him an automail.

They couldn't refuse when Ed looked so determined like that.

Ed cleared his throat, bringing Shiro out of his thoughts.

"Oi, old man, gonna take all day in the bathroom?"Ed grinned.

Not at all amused at the nickname, Shiro scoffed and broadened his stance on the threshold of the bathroom. He made sure to block the sides with his arms too.

"This 'old man' needs to take a long hot bath. Cause you know, that's what 'old men' do." Shiro stressed the 'old man' part and grinned. He even waggled his eyebrows at the blond. "Pipsqueak."

Ed's grin fell and a tick mark appeared on his forehead. He lifted his leg backwards, his automailleg, and smiled mockingly.

Shiro's grin also fell. 'Damn blondie.'

Shiro moved out the bathroom with a glower and listened as the door shut. Trying to get the last word, in a sense, he sat right outside the door and leaned on it.

"Hey Ed, you should do a number two, like right now, as I'm right outside the bathroom and everything." Incoherent grumbling could be heard inside. "I promise I won't laugh."

Shiro laughed.

After a few minutes with Shiro just idly leaning on the door, he realized he left his beaded necklace inside. Getting up with a groan, he knocked on the door without turning around.

He managed to stretch out his arms a couple of times before the door opened.

"So Ed, did ya do a num…" Shiro said as he turned around but he trailed off when he saw who was standing at the doorway.

It wasn't Ed anymore.

Ed didn't have black hair. Ed wasn't taller than him.

It was his older brother.

Completely in shock, Shiro couldn't do anything but stare at the motionless figure. He let his eyes stare into the messily cut black hair, then into the blank golden eyes of his brother, then at his chest, his bloody chest.

There was a gaping hole in his brother's military uniform along with a hole in his body too.

His brother's heart was gone.

Shiro screamed.

FMAFMAFMAFMA

Shiro's eyes sNapped open only to slam shut at the white light that assaulted his eyes.

He groaned out loud and weakly pawed at his chest, where he had to make sure he still had a heart. When his hand rested over his heart, he sighed in relief when he felt it beat, albeit a bit rapidly.

He tried to turn over but a spike of pain flashed through his side, resulting in him staying as still as possible. While waiting for the pain to subside, Shiro observed the room he was in and determined that it was very white.

'A hospital? Why…'

And then everything came back to him.

"Ed!" he shouted as he sat up straight. He doubled over in pain right after and didn't hear the door slam open as his senses were assaulted by pain.

Shiro began to breathe heavily through his nose in order to calm himself and started when he felt a hand rest over his back, rubbing.

After several moments passed, Shiro wearily looked up to whoever it was and saw Ed. He was fine, except some cuts littering his face.

Shiro breathed a sigh of relief and reached up to grab Ed's golden head. He brought his head towards his until their foreheads were touching and closed his eyes to bask in this peaceful moment.

He didn't care how long time passed but he pulled away though his gaze never left Ed's relaxed face. Then he remembered Ed's pained face the night where he almost died.

Ed must have seen something in his red eyes because he said sorry with such a miserable face that Shiro couldn't help but smile at the cuteness.

"Ne, as long as you never do that again, I'll always forgive you."

Despite the fact that the hospital wanted him to stay for a couple of days, Shiro was up and gone after he realized he slept for two days straight unconscious.

Stay? No thanks.

He hated hospitals.

Ed and Al, indisposed as he was, had to go to Resembool. Ed had to get a new automail and Al could only get fixed after Ed got his new arm. They asked him if he wanted to go too but Shiro refused, saying he felt too sore to walk.

Well, not too sore that he couldn't walk out the hospital.

He left the hospital the day he woke up and found the nearest hotel to check in. He slept the second he got into his room.

Shiro woke up when someone knocked on his door. He was too tired to make himself presentable and instead stumbled to the door, hair everywhere and all.

When he opened the door, a shiver shot up his spine. It wasn't from the cold but it was because of the guy standing in front of him.

He was a normal average guy, wearing the hotel's green uniform. He had brown hair and brown eyes, nothing outstanding. He was even wearing a name tag labeled Lee.

Yet this guy bothered the shit out of him.

The guy, Lee, held out the receiver of the vintage phone to Shiro while grinning, creepily in his opinion. He took it warily and was slightly relieved when he heard Ed's voice come through the receiver.

"Hey Shiro."

Smiling slightly, Shiro backed up into his room with the receiver but the Lee guy stepped forward. The albino started but realized that he only did this because the cord was too short for the guy to stand outside. The guy was holding the bulky part of the telephone, the part with the dials, and when he noticed Shiro covertly glancing towards him, Lee showed the part he was holding in response.

"Hey... Ed, er, w-what… was it that you needed?"

Ed paused and asked warily, "Are you ok?"

Shiro was barely paying attention because standing so near to this guy was severely compromising his attention span.

When Ed started to repeat himself, growing steadily alarmed, he answered, "Oh, sorry! Just, you know, woke up."

Ed seemed to realize something was wrong and spoke hesitantly. "Right…" There was a shuffling sound and some mumbled talk but Shiro still heard parts of it.

"Crap.. can't… tell.. wrong…it's- urgent."

Ed came back to the phone and started whispering. "Hey, something's wrong right? Is.. is it bad?"

Shiro glanced at the seemingly innocuous Lee and just saw his eyes glancing away from him. He kept an eye on him as he spoke, "No, my back is fine. I can still do whatever you want me to do. Thanks for asking."

Thankfully Ed seemed to realize the extent of his situation. "Okay, wait hold on." There was a bit of static before Ed whispered even lower. "Can you go to the First Branch Library and look up Dr. Marcoh's research? Got a lead and I can't wait."

Shiro observed the guy's appearance and when he showed no outward reaction, he relaxed and answered, "Sure, I'll go tell Mustang that."

"You sure everything's okay?"

Shiro smiled. "Yeah."

"Okay then," Ed trusted him enough to let it go, "See you later. Coming back as soon as possible."

Shiro was surprised he was coming back already but refrained from asking. He wanted that guy out of his room as soon as possible.

He hung up and handed the receiver back but accidentally touched hands. A violent shiver raced up his spine as he was assaulted with pain. suffering. help. pleasepleasesomeone. thousands, millions daddynowhere, my daughter, nonoNO.

Sweating terribly, Shiro jumped back and forcibly pulled himself together when he noticed Lee look at him, a calculating gleam in his eyes.

"Ah, I j-just felt a cold draft…" Shiro stuttered out as an excuse.

Suddenly Shiro could see that guy's eyes turn from gentle to cruel. He was about to grab something to defend himself but Lee just bowed and left the room abruptly, telephone and all.

Shiro blinked the sweat out of his eyes and plopped down to the ground as he listened to the receding footsteps of that guy. He began to breathe heavily to calm himself down.

'Shit. What the hell was that?'

FMAFMAFMAFMA

Outside, as Lee walked out the door, his polite grin morphed into a devious smirk. When he spoke, his voice wasn't the deep baritone of a man, it was more childish and lighter.

"So, the First Branch Library, huh?"

Red sparks flickered at the guy's feet. The sparks gradually covered his whole body but it wasn't the same guy as before. This person wore a two piece clothing: a miniskirt with pants underneath and a tight top that reached his midsection, leaving his stomach bare. Gone were the brown hair and instead were long locks of green hair spread evenly around his face.

His smirk turned absolutely cruel. "Gotta tell Lust what they're doing."

As he walked, his skirt shifted upwards to show more skin. On his left thigh was an Uroboros tattoo.

Over the next three days, Shiro had been going to the library to look up Dr. Marcoh's research. Everyday there was no luck in finding them because he didn't want to ask the librarians for this. He vaguely remembered the name Dr. Marcoh and it came to him that he was one of the doctors in the Ishvalan War. He was sought after by the government because he deserted the war.

If he was looking into the research of such a guy, then he needed to do it secretly lest he attract the attention of high ranking officials he didn't want.

On the third day of looking through every nook and cranny of the grandiose library, he struck gold in the way back of the building.

In the form… of Dr. Marcoh's cookbook?

Shiro stared blankly at the yellow book. He looked around the area where he first found the book and found more volumes… of that blasted cookbook.

'You got to be kidding me.'

Shiro groaned out loud and slumped down to the ground. He spent three days in this library to research, which he absolutely loathed, and the only thing he found was a cookbook.

Shiro glared at the innocent yellow cookbook he held and flipped through it.

'At least have something good to eat so it makes up for all this.'

He barely flipped through the first ten pages when he smelled smoke. It was faint but it was still there and the fact that he was in a library, first of all, alarmed him.

When he looked out the library's window, he saw black smoke furling up to the sky.

Shiro cursed and jumped to his feet. With one cookbook in hand, he grabbed the rest of the volumes, five in all, and stuffed them into his jacket. Since he was in the back of the library, the exit was quite far and he rushed as quickly as he could towards the door.

Just as he was about to reach the door, the ceiling right above it groaned. With a curse, he jumped back and just in time too because the ceiling beam fell down with a crash right in front of the door, blocking the only exit.

With no time to spare, Shiro ran for the other option: the windows. However, when he looked outside, he saw that he was three stories high.

"You have got to be kidding." Shiro groaned.

He lost his nerve but quickly gained it back when he could the heat of the flames on his back. Gathering up his courage, Shiro quickly aimed for the nearest tree and jumped. He managed to grab onto a branch, however he was forced to let go when pain flashed through his side. Falling down several feet, he luckily landed on a big bush.

For several moments, Shiro laid on the leaves wide-eyed and gasping for breath. Overhead, he could see the black smoke massing together and the steadily darkening sky lightened by the ominous gleam of the fire.

He closed his eyes in a brief prayer of thanks and stood up carefully. Then, in order to go before any authorities could arrive and question him, he started to hobble down the road as he left behind the burning mess of a building behind him.

FMAFMAFMAFMA

Shiro finally arrived back at the hotel past midnight. Truth was, he was still healing from his injury, he didn't have money to get a taxi, and he took the long route home because he didn't want anyone to see him, most of all authorities.

When he opened the door to his hotel, he was pleasantly surprised to discover Ed and Al have already returned from their trip to Resembool.

They seemed to be talking together but when he entered dirtied, scratched, and smudged with dirt and grass in his hair, they immediately jumped to their feet.

"What happened!" They asked simultaneously. "We heard that the First Branch Library burned down hours ago!" Al said.

Shiro was about to answer when he noticed two other people in the room with them. These two military soldiers, one blond-haired male and the other a short cut black-haired female, seemed to be at ease around Ed and Al so he assumed the brothers weren't under watch or anything like that. But he wasn't about to say something so important to these strangers if they were going to report back to the higher officials.

When Ed noticed his glances towards the two, he introduced them. "We can trust them. They're Major Armstrong's men. The guy's named Denny Brosh and she's Maria Ross." The two soldiers perked up at their names and greeted Shiro formally.

"We are pleased to make your acquaintance!"

Tired beyond belief at this late hour, Shiro merely grunted and handed over the six volumes of Dr. Marcoh's cookbooks to Ed and Al. at their inquiring looks, he explained. "These are Dr. Marcoh's."

At these words, Ed quickly opened up one of the books and started to read. His face quickly soured when he realized he was reading directions on how to make apple pie.

Shiro hastened to reply before Ed could explode. "I know, that was me a few hours ago." He looked at Al as he began reading too. "But as I was walking back here, I realized something. These books, they seem to be written in a code."

Hearing the word 'code', Ed's whole face lightened up and his eyes sparked at the challenge. Before he could set out to read, he asked. "Are you fine?"

Shiro nodded wordlessly and watched as Ed and Al gathered up all the volumes and set out reading. When they looked up towards him in question, he shook his head. "I'm gonna take a shower and then I'm gonna take a nice long nap. After all, I did get these books for you."

At that, he turned and headed towards the bathroom and passed by the two military personnels without a glance and closed the door.

FMAFMAFMAFMA

Shiro had the worst wake–up call. He accidentally slept in the shower tub as he was taking a bath and woke up because his head slipped underwater. He sat up abruptly sputtering out water out his nostrils.

Properly dry and dressed, Shiro came out of the bathroom, wrinkled from his long stay in the water. He was about to greet everyone in the room but stopped when he realized the atmosphere was dark and gloomy.

Blinking, Shiro looked around and noticed the two soldiers looking sick. He then looked down at Ed and Al on the floor, surrounded by notes and paper. They didn't look sick, just incredibly angry. Shiro didn't remember a time when they were this furious.

Without looking up, Ed bit out. "Humans."

Shiro raised an eyebrow and knelt down next to his two immobile cousins where he could see Ed gnashing his teeth together. "The ingredients to the Philosopher's Stone…is living humans!"

Eyes darkening at the news, Shiro carefully grabbed a paper full with Ed's handwriting and read it. Closing his eyes, he tilted his face upwards.

'What is becoming of this world?'

Ross and Brush asked to leave their hotel room while they set their minds straight again. They didn't leave, however, without Ed first warning them to keep it a secret. They left quite reluctantly at that.

After they left, the room was silent and dark. No one bothered to turn on any lights and let the city lights from the window illuminate their room. Finally Al broke the silence. "Ed, Shi-chan, go get something to eat."

Shiro didn't bother responding and Ed just replied, "Don't want anything."

No one said anything for the next few minutes.

All of a sudden, Ed reached for the ceiling with his automail. "You know, just when we think it's in reach, it slips away from us." He clenched his fist. "When we have it in our grasps, we get kicked down by whatever we've caught."

Then Shiro saw Ed smile deprecatingly. "God must really hate people who commit taboos… I wonder if we'll be like this the rest of our lives."

Those words pained Shiro greatly because he knew… he knew that he was also one of those people. 'I still haven't told them that I… also committed the taboo.'

Eyes downcast, he barely registered Ed talking to Al. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you for a while…" Ed took a deep breath and opened his mouth to ask but was interrupted by a series of loud knocks on their door.

Startled out of their minds, everyone in the room jumped to their feet, though they relaxed at once when they realized who exactly the person was when he shouted, "Elric brothers! I know you're in there! It is I! Open up!"

Glancing at each other, Ed deadpanned. "Ignore him."

Easier said than done.

The door burst open in a flurry of wooden specks and Shiro dreadfully watched as the door fell down to the ground. 'Oh my god.'

"Such tragedy!" Major Armstrong exclaimed, sparkles and waterworks in all. "To think that such a terrible secret was concealed by the Philosopher's Stone!"

'Please, keep on your shirt this time.'

Shiro thought as he watched Ed glare accusingly towards the sweating Ross and Brosh. As they hurried to defend themselves, Major Armstrong continued his crying tirade to the other occupants of the room. "To think that the military was conducting something like that! The truth can be a cruel thing at times!"

At the word 'truth', Ed's eyes widened. Seeing this, Shiro took the chance to interrupt the Major and asked him, "What's wrong?"

To Al, he replied. "Do you remember what Dr. Marcoh said? " Grimly smiling, Ed remembered. "The truth within the truth… It's the same as with the alchemy research notes. What you see on the surface is only a portion of the truth. There's still more. There's still…"

Gone was the dark atmosphere. The people in the room, transformed now that the lights were on, were full of enthusiasm and trepidation as they looked down at a map of Central on the coffee table.

Major Armstrong pointed out four different points on the map. "Currently, there are four alchemy laboratories in Central which have connections to the government. Among these laboratories, Dr. Marcoh worked at the 3rd Laboratory." He pointed to a place on the map labeled the '3rd Laboratory'. "This one is the most suspicious."

Ed was deeply in thought. "Hmmm. We went around to all the laboratories in the city but they weren't doing any remarkable research."

He quieted as he tried to search for a solution. Shiro was looking too and he noticed a crossed out building. His eyes glinted when he saw what was next to the building.

"Oi, Major, what about this building?" Shiro asked.

Major saw what he was pointing at and looked upwards to Ross for an explanation.

Holding a file in he hands, she explained to everyone. "That's the building for the 5th Laboratory, but its not currently in use. There's been a risk of it collapsing so it's been declared off-limited. Why?"

When everyone looked at the albino, he explained. "Look at the building next to it." As everyone looked at what was next to it, he continued. "It's a prison." He smiled sardonically. "Nice to have a fresh batch of ingredients just next door, isn't it?"

When Shiro tapered off, Ed continued, grimly but excitedly. "They would have condemned prisoners to execution. Officially, they could say they were executed but…" Ed trailed off also, but everyone got the gist of it at this point.

Face blue, Ross put a hand to her lips. "The prisoners were the ingredients…"

Al piped up. "And if prisons from other jurisdictions were involved, I wonder if the government is involved too.

Both the soldiers' faces were blue at this point. "Why do I get the feeling that we've stuck our noses into something terrible here?"

Worried, Al exclaimed, "That's why we asked you guys to pretend you never heard anything!"

The room fell into silence soon after. No one had anything to say. It wasn't long before Major Armstrong stood up with the map in his hands. "I shall look into this." Facing everyone, the Major continued. "In the meantime, 2nd Lieutenant Sergeants, speak of this to no one." The two soldiers saluted and gave a word of agreement. Turning to Shiro and his cousins, he said. "And you three, behave yourselves."

Shiro rolled his eyes when Ed and Al noticeably jumped at getting caught.

Eyes glinting something fierce, the Major drew himself up. "Look here, you two! You were just thinking of sneaking into the laboratory and looking around, weren't you?"

Ed and Al vehemently refused. "We weren't, we weren't!"

FMAFMAFMAFMA

Some time later, Shiro grinned mockingly and spoke in a high-pitched falsetto voice. "We weren't, we weren't, huh?"

Ed grunted. "Shut up!"

Ed, Al, and Shiro were running along the streets of Central as the stars glinted in the sky. No lights were on out on the streets but the full moonlight was enough to light the streets for them.

As they arrived at the abandoned laboratory, they paused when they saw a guard outside the doors.

"Hmm, a guard posted at an abandoned building?"

"It's very suspicious."

As the brothers conversed together, Shiro drew back and walked to the walls.

"How are we getting in?" Al asked.

Ed stopped to think. "We could make our own entrance."

Al rejected that option. "They'd see the light of your transmutation."

They stopped talking when a rock dropped from above to land between the two. They looked up towards the fence walls of the laboratory and saw Shiro at the way top, waving at them.

Ed deadpanned. "Or that…"

Once everyone got over the fence wall, they approached the abandoned laboratory. They looked for other ways in when they saw the entrance heavily barricaded with boards.

A few minutes later, Shiro found an air vent up along the walls of the laboratory and quietly pointed it out to the others. Shiro waited as Ed was boosted up towards the vent by standing on Al's shoulders. Opening it up, he said to Al as he tried to fit himself as comfortable as possible inside the vent, "Al, wait here, okay?"

"Are you going to be all right?"

Ed grinned from inside the vent. "All right or not, with your big size you can't get through here, right?"

Dejected, Al huddled on the ground. "I didn't get this big because I wanted to…"

Shiro smiled and patted Al's big suit of armor soothingly. Gracefully, he leaped for the opening and grabbed it. Unlike Ed, he was tall enough to not use Al for support.

Ed seemed to hear his thoughts because he craned his head back uncomfortably and glared at his white-haired cousin despite the narrow space they were crawling through.

FMAFMAFMAFMA

Ed and Shiro were crawling for three minutes, four tops, before the narrow vent seemed to shrink even more. Ed groaned. "Damn, it's even tighter in here than I thought." Struggling a bit more, he paused to rest. "I couldn't have gotten through here if I was regular-sized."

Since his cousin was behind him, Ed couldn't see Shiro's shoulders shaking.

He continued absentmindedly. "Luckily, my body is small…"

Ed finally heard the muffled laughter coming from behind him and he spazzed. "I just said I was small!"

Ed's cries and Shiro's laughter echoed in the vent.

Further down, the duo breathed a sigh of relief as they saw an opening on the bottom of the vent. They struggled to crawl a bit farther and jumped out the vent when they opened it.

Sweating and dusty, Shiro and Ed dropped down into a dirty hallway. Imagine their surprise when they saw that the lights on the bottom were lit.

"'Not currently in use' my foot." Ed grinned triumphantly. "Bingo."

As they cautiously walked down the hallway, they were stopped short soon after when they came across two exits to the hallway.

Cursing, Ed looked between the two exits. "Hey, split up?"

Shiro grinned and made a noise of agreement.

Ed started to walk down the left exit as Shiro took the right.

Looking forward towards his own hallway, Shiro said, "Be careful."

Ed grinned. "Yeah."

I wanted to stop this chapter but didn't know where. Hope this is suitable! Enjoy!