And how're you all today? Okay, I managed to type up the ninth chapter. Quite a few people do a bit of thinking in this one. And yes, there is more evilness by Dante. She makes Wilhelmina go from being happy to crying. It actually hurt when I typed up some of the stuff Dante said, but it had to be done. Sadly.

And, as always, a thank you to the people who read and review the story. Here, have some cookies gives out cookies


"Hey Uncle…" Grethel said, not looking up form her book. She was reading some romance novel that was the same as the rest. Boy and girl meet and eventually fall in love and marry and live happily ever after. To be honest, Grethel wasn't really paying attention to it and had instead her mind had been racing bizarrely.

"Hmm…?" was the only sound that came from her uncle who was lazily slouching at his desk. He was supposed to be cooking their dinner right now, but he didn't feel like it at the moment. He had decided to leave that task for at least five minutes.

"Willie might never have made it through the Gate," Grethel said, but her voice was not sad or worried. Instead, it was inventive and full of ideas. "So that means she'd be dead right?"

There was no answer from her uncle who would rather to never have to think of that outcome. Thinking that she had confirmed her sister's death, Grethel straightened up and got her uncle's attention again.

"I don't believe she is," Grethel had quickly added. "If anything it would be whoever opened the Gate on the other side that would die since Willie had no intention of opening the Gate and crossing over. So, there's a pretty safe chance that she passed through, right?"

She smiled internally now that she noticed that her uncle was looking her with a bit of amazement. He seemed quite surprised, and Grethel bathed in her glory o surprising him.

"The fact that she didn't want to intentionally have any contact with the Gate does not mean that she will--"

"Just pretend that it does," Grethel quickly cut in and continued once her uncle gave a sigh of submission. "Actually, it doesn't matter if it does or doesn't. What I'm trying to get down to is the point that whatever was sacrificed was something, not big, but important. It's neither of us since we're still alive and well. And it was probably also something else that was straying around in her mind." Grethel took a deep breath. "So, I was going to ask if you told her any other stories that didn't involve Alchemy or that Amesis place."

"Amestris," her uncle corrected with a tired sigh. "It's called Amestris, not 'Amesis'. And I'm sorry but I only told her the stories about Alchemy. Only the ones you eavesdropped on."

Grethel's face reddened, though not as much as her ears, as she boomed, "I was not eavesdropping! You were speaking too loudly!" Grethel slammed her book shut. "Do you want me to say what I think she sacrificed, or not?"

"I was only answering your question," the uncle said and then asked, a bit eagerly, "What do you think she sacrificed?"

"Willie sacrificed," Grethel said, holding up a finger. "Whatever was straying around in her mind. Something important that she loves and always thinks about subconsciously."

"Which is…?"

Grethel turned her head away in a huff and muttered loudly, "I can't believe you expect me to know what goes on inside my little sister's mind! And, to any point, I'm not the one who poisoned her mind with rubbish stories!"

Then something strange happened. Grethel looked back around to see if it was true. Her uncle had started to laugh. He stopped abruptly when he noticed that Grethel was looking at him as if she had just realised he was capable of laughing.

He cleared his throat and apologized, "I'm sorry Grethel. I just find it funny how one little thing can make you think about Alchemy the way you used to."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Before you were talking about Alchemy as if you liked it," her uncle explained, resisting heavily the urge to grin. "Maybe even as if you were an Alchemist. But as soon as you get the slightest bit upset, you think that it's poison I set in Willie's mind."

Grethel looked down at her book and complained, "I don't need you to expect me to have all the answers, you know!"

"I don't expect you to," her uncle said. "I didn't even expect you to understand Alchemy as much as Willie did--"
"Do you think I'm inferior to her?!"

"With concepts like Alchemy you would be. You know as well as I do Grethel, you like to see things before you believe them. Willie, on the other hand won't. She's not as mature as you and is more… open to ideas."

"You speak as if it's a good thing…"

"Isn't it not?"

"If you are open to such ludicrous ideas, you let things happen to you," Grethel said stubbornly. "That's what happened to Willie; and I half expect her to fall into the most serious trouble because of it."


"Now that you are all here," the Fuhrer said, looking over at the mother and son who were seated across from his desk and at one of his most loyal (wo)men. They were all waiting in some form on anticipations, although Edison was obviously the most anxious. "I have something important to tell you after talking on the phone to a woman--"

"You were chatting up a woman when you were supposed to help us look for Wilhelmina?!" Edison suddenly demanded with a snap. The Fuhrer glared at Edison, but waved the outburst off.

"Rockbell," he said, talking to Edison as if he was talking to a dirty mule. "The woman was my way of finding the girl. The woman I was talking to was Rose and after asking a few questions I have located where your friend was taken to, Rockbell."

The two women gave the Fuhrer a look that read that they already knew that part and wanted him to hurry and get down to the point. Winry had even made a bit of a nod, despite the fact that it was barely noticeable. Edison however, unlike the two female adults, didn't look so serious. His expression was more open to showing how hopeful he was that they had found Wilhelmina.

"Where is it?" Edison asked, enthusiastic to find his friend.

"I believe we have all been there before, at one time or another," the Fuhrer said as his eyes darted to the faces to the three listeners to see if he made an impact. Then he remembered and quickly said to Edison, "Apart from you. I doubt you have even heard of--"

"Just tell us where it is!" Winry demanded, a bit impatiently. Her voice was dominant enough to make the Fuhrer nearly jump out of his skin.

"Of course," the Fuhrer said and then cleared his throat before saying. "The girl is certainly not the first person to cross through to our world. We know that Edward Elric crossed over to the girl's world and came back to Amestris before finally returning there to seal up the portal with his brother. Since these two incidents have happened in the same place, I wouldn't be surprised if the girl was taken to the Underground City."

"That sounds an awful lot like a guess," Winry protested. "What would the chances be of--"

"It's our only idea of where the girl could be," Riza quickly explained to Winry. "It's worth a try."

Edison looked at his mother. She seemed a bit… nervous. Maybe she didn't really like the idea of going underground. Edison had no memory of his mother being claustrophobic or afraid of going underground. Maybe it was the fact that it was also a city. He could only guess tat it was a deserted one since he hadn't ever heard of it before.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to," Edison told his mother, who shook her head.

"No," she said. "I'll come."

Edison made a bit of a weak smile. He was glad that his mother was coming. He wasn't sure why he was glad about it, but just gave it the reason that he would feel more safe - more protected - if she was there.

"What are you all looking at me for?" Winry asked. It was then that Edison noticed that all three of them had been looking at Winry. She clapped her hands and stood up as she said as enthusiastically as she could manage, "Well lets go to this Underground City then!"

Everyone had agreed in their own way, and before he knew it, Edison was following the three adults to… He didn't know where. He wasn't paying much attention to anything at all he was too busy worrying over Wilhelmina's health. It had suddenly occurred to him that she could be dead for all he knew. So Edison barely noticed when the Fuhrer dropped back a bit to speak to him.

"Don't look so pale, Rockbell," the Fuhrer said, punching Edison lightly in the arm. Edison rubbed his arm; he wasn't used to a friendly punch at all. Didn't even know it existed until now so as far as he was concerned, it hurt.

"Mmmm…" Edison said as he looked at his arm, trying to deduct if there was going to be a bruise there or not. His mind quickly went back to thinking about Wilhelmina and pondering over the possibility that she was dead.

"You're doing it again," the Fuhrer complained. "Aren't you happy that we're finding this, uh, Wilma girl?"

"Her name's not Wilma," Edison said, letting out a deep breath of air. "It's Wilhelmina."

"I was close enough."

"Yeah, whatever…"

The silence came between the two again; which the Fuhrer didn't like. So the solution was to talk.

"Well aren't you happy we're going to find her?" the Fuhrer asked Edison, who once again replied with a,

"Mmm…"

The Fuhrer frowned. Maybe the kid was broken. But, of course, there would definitely be a reply from the Fuhrer's trump card which usually worked on most people who were silent. The Fuhrer moved closer to Edison and asked in a lower voice so no one else would hear,

"So, Rockbell, is this girl your girlfriend?"

Edison started to walk a bit faster, catching up to his mother and Riza. He had no witty reply and didn't feel like talking to anyone. He was too busy trying to figure out the possibility of Wilhelmina's death. Surely she could talk her way out of trouble; or at least make up some story to get out of a situation. So that was a good thing.

The Fuhrer had caught up to Edison again, but Edison wasn't listening to what the Fuhrer was saying. He was too busy trying to guess if people from Wilhelmina's side of the Gate had more strength than people on his side of the Gate or not. Edison was so wrapped up in his thoughts and guesses that he nearly walked into Riza. Luckily, he was able to stop himself in time.

"You don't seem too happy about the idea of the Underground City, Winry," Edison heard Riza say. It was then he realised that he could easily eavesdrop off them, since they seemed to have barely acknowledged he was right behind them. And even though Edison was against eavesdropping most of the time, he wanted to know what Riza wanted to know.

"It's just that…" Winry tried to say. "Well… He came back. In the Underground City he had come back. But… then he left again with his brother… It's not the most positive memory."

Edison didn't understand who 'he' was for a few seconds, until he registered that his mother had also said 'his brother'. Edison dropped back a bit, in case his mother turned around and noticed that he had heard what she had said. Edison didn't want to give her a fright or anything.

"Haven't you guessed?" the Fuhrer asked, making Edison jump up in surprise. He had forgotten all about the Fuhrer. "Your mother was as close to the Elric brothers as you are to Wilhelmina. Well, her relationship was closer."

"I knew that," Edison half lied, making the Fuhrer grin a bit. He had known that his mother was close to the Elric brothers, but he hadn't exactly realised it. It made him feel a bit bad.

"It's not easy when your closest friends suddenly disappear like they did," the Fuhrer continued but Edison decided to only half-listen. All this was starting to make him feel sad for his mother, even if the intention was probably to make him more determined with finding Wilhelmina.


"Tell me about our family, Wilhelmina," the lady, who Wilhelmina just referred to as 'Miss', said as she combed the blonde girls hair. Wilhelmina felt delighted at being asked a question as if it was of high importance and immediately answered.

"Well," Wilhelmina said in her answer. "I have a father, mother, older sister and our uncle lives with us. My mother and father are off doing who-knows-what in the war. I don't really know much about the war, and I don't really care as long as they don't die in it."

"Tell me more about your sister," Dante said. Wilhelmina was too busy acting important to notice things that she would have usually noticed. Like the fact that her hair hurt when Dante tried to untangle horribly big knots.

"Oh, okay then," Wilhelmina said, even though she wanted to talk more about her father and uncle since they seemed to be very famous (in Wilhelmina's head of course). "Well, her name's Grethel. Um, she's about fourteen I think. Maybe older, I can't remember. She's as tall as a guy and can burp like one, but denies it."

"What does she look like?"

"Uh… She looks like…" Wilhelmina shocked herself with the fact that she had forgotten what her sister had looked like. "Well, her hair is… the colour of…"

"Can't you remem--"

"She has blonde hair," Wilhelmina quickly said, interrupting Dante. She then started to rattle off, describing Edison. After all, hadn't she said that Edison looked a lot like her sister? "And blue eyes. Her skin colour is normal but is tanned from being out in the sun working with… metal stuff…"

"Oh?" Dante said. "That sounds an awful lot like that 'friend' of yours."

Wilhelmina felt like shooting a weird look at Dante, but couldn't since the comb would pull her hair pretty hard. The way Dante had said friend wasn't very promising.

"You know," Dante said, manipulatively. "It is strange that he hid you from the world when you first came here. I wonder why he hid you from his mother."

"He was worried for my safety," Wilhelmina quickly answered stubbornly. "He didn't want me to be taken off somewhere--"

"--to where people could help you get home," Dante finished the sentence, although she changed it to her own meaning. "It may not be my place to say Wilhelmina, but I think your friend doesn't want you to go home."

"Of course he wouldn't," Wilhelmina said, jokingly. "He'd miss me too much."

"Is he that attached to you?"

"I don't know, but I'd miss him greatly if I went home."

"So," Dante said. "if you would miss him greatly when you go home, does that mean that you miss your family even more at the moment."

"No," Wilhelmina answered simply. "I'm used to my parents being gone, now. And I don't think Grethel misses me. She hated stories about Alchemy and thought they were a bad influence on me. And my uncle… He probably wanted me to come here. He seemed to love this place a lot. I don't need to miss them if they don't miss me."

"That's cold for you to say," Dante said, suddenly pretending to sound worried. "How could you say that about your own family? No matter what they will always miss you."

"They don't miss me that much," Wilhelmina said, trying to sound confident, even though her confidence was starting to break.

"How can you be so sure? Haven't you realised that you can never return?"

"What?!" Wilhelmina gasped as she twisted herself round, ignoring how much her hair hurt from the twist, to face Dante directly.

"What do you mean, Miss?" Wilhelmina asked, fear written all over her face. "Why can't I go home?"

"Dear child, haven't you been told?" Dante asked, convincingly sounding concerned. "Weren't you ever told that? It's a miracle that you passed through the Gate in the condition you did. It makes me wonder what you sacrificed…"

"I sacrificed nothing!" Wilhelmina said, for her own benefit. "I can't have. I mean, no one even asked me what I wanted to sacrifice!"

"Oh dear," Dante said. "If I had known you'd get so upset about this, I wouldn't have said anything."

"No, it's good you did," Wilhelmina quickly said. "But I'm scared now. What if something's gone? Something important! Oh… Please Miss, tell me I didn't sacrifice anything too important!"

"I can't really say, since I don't know what's important to you?" Dante said. "But, I have sources on the other side of the Gate which tell me that the war is over."

"Over?" Wilhelmina repeated dumbly, since the news struck her randomly. "Who-who won?"

"Uh… That's not important since I have something else they told me," Dante said, continuing and strengthening her lie. "I told them to look for your parents - since I am concerned about Ed and Al's safety - and they said that they couldn't find them."

Wilhelmina felt like a mirror that had just recently been shattered. Did that mean that her parents had died? And then, as Dante had planned, the most horrible thought struck Wilhelmina. Her face scrunched up and she quickly cupped it in her hands. Wilhelmina was curled over on the ground, trying as best as she could to not cry. She tried to push the thought out of her mind; tried to rip it up into little pieces, but failed. The thought kept circling around in her head, tormenting her and making her feel guilty.

I-I-I can't have… Wilhelmina told herself. I can't of! No! They must have got shot in the war! It's not real! Not right! This is all just a bad dream!

But you sacrificed them to get here, the more pessimistic part of Wilhelmina's mind taunted. Your selfish sense of adventure ended your parents lives. You sacrificed them so you get here.

And all the while Wilhelmina was crying, Dante occasionally said something comforting to play her part as a concerned friend. But, inside, she was delighted with how easy it was to trick children. Especially ones who were this gullible.


DanteBIG BIG BIG ebil!!!!
And just so you know and are assured, Wilhelmina did not sarcrifice her parents. Dante just said that. 'Cause she's evil. Evil lil bnitch...

Anyway, please read and review saying if you like the story or not. In fact, be more creative than just saying 'I like this story' or 'I hate this story'. You could even say it in another language! (Hah... no one'll do that...)