I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or Brotherhood. But there will be some direct lines from the story.

This story deals with a gender-swapped Ed.

And please feel free to comment and or give suggestion.

I got to the hotel after a long train ride, the sun has been set for a while at that point. Winston was in the hotel lobby talking on the phone to somebody. I walked up behind him when he hung up the phone.

"Hey Winston." He turned and looked at and his eyes went wide.

"You idiot!" He yelled at me.

"What ? I didn't break my automail." I was confused at his reaction to seeing me. I felt strong hands on my back pushing me to the stairs.

"You need to see your brother right now!" He didn't slow down when we reached the stairs so he mainly dragged me up them. When we got to the door I glared at him and he met my glare.

"You know I could have walked up them by myself." And with that I opened the door to the bedroom to see what was wrong with my little brother. It wasn't hard to find the seven foot tall suit that was my little brother. He was standing in the middle of the room with tarps where his right arm and mouth plate should be. I couldn't figure out whether I should be made or concerned or relived. I opened my mouth.

"YOU BROKE YOUR!" So angry was the emotion I was going with. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO WHEN I WAS GONE?!" I heard the sounds of people eating so I looked at the only table in the room to find Lan Fan and Ling sitting and eating enough food to feed an army. "AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

"We're eating." Ling responded. I didn't care how cute he was right then, I was too angry to see straight. I walked over to him and Lan Fan and grabbed them from the backs of their shirts and dragged them to the door. I literally kick the two out the door, once they were out I slammed the door behind them. I turned to look at Al and Winston they both held their hands up thinking I was going to do the same to them. I took a deep breath. "Al could you sit down please?" He did as I asked and sat down. I walked up to him to examine the cuts in the armour. "This is a clean cut, what the hell did you do when I was gone?"

"Okay after you left Ling showed up and told us about how Ross was innocent and you were going to Xerxes to see that she was still alive. Then he got a signal from Lan Fan that the fighting had started so we went to fight the homunculi, and Barry the chopper was there and so was his real body. We followed them to the 3rd laboratory and split up, Hawkeye and I went one direction and the Colonel and Havoc went the other direction. We found this huge white room with a giant door on the other end, that's when Lust came to kill us, you know she was the one that cut off my arm." Al informed me. At that my eye widened I was about to say something before Al cut me off to continue. "Don't worry about it Mustang killed her after he cauterized his own wound. Then they were taken to the hospital and I came back here." He looked down when he finished but I could tell he was holding something back.

"Al what aren't you telling me?" I asked making him make eye contact again.

"Barry the Chopper said that a soul in a foreign vessel could be rejected at any moment." It felt like a rock landed in my stomach. My little brother could die before I could save him. I clapped my hands and used the metal from the surrounding area to replace his arm.

"Sorry you are going to be a bit thinner, just don't do anything stupid without me next time." I said as the transmutation happened. Once it was done and Al was all fixed I looked down trying to wrap my head around everything.

"Al will get back to normal right?" Winston asked, worried for him. I could feel a smile on my face.

"Of course he is. I said I will fix him so I will." I took a breath. "Al I was up to some stuff while I was gone. I dug up the thing we made." I flat out told him not knowing a better time to do so. Al stood up at that.

"Wha..."

"It wasn't mom." I finished cutting him off. I could feel the confusion coming from him. "But it has lead me to believe that we can get your body back." Winston's jaw dropped at that.

"Really how?" He asked. I took a breath.

"Do you remember when you two cut my hair super short?" I asked.

"Yeah we were just talking about it the other day." Al said not getting the point.

"I heard from Al that it was a prank, do you remember why you did it?" I asked. 'man it was like pulling teeth.'

"Yeah, it was Al's idea, we just wanted to laugh. So one night that you stayed over at our place and not in your basement, Al and I walked into your room and we both cut your hair while you were sleeping." Winston explained. I got angry at that.

"Why the hell didn't you just draw on my face then! It took me years to regrow that!" I yelled getting off topic.

"Why does it matter?" Winston asked trying to get me back on topic.

"Because I thought that I cut it on my own, but I never remember cutting it. It proves that Al's memories aren't fake and they are his."

"But then how am I remembering things now? I don't have a brain in this body." Al said, I walked over to him and pulled off his helmet. I point to the blood seal on the back of his armour.

"This right here. It's a link your soul is connected to your mind, meaning that your body is still alive somewhere."

"Like Barry the Chopper. His body existed without his soul."

"And like in alchemy how there is the body, the mind, and the soul."

"The body and the soul are attracted together because it's connected to the mind." Al and I were just going back and forth saying these things, I knew that if I was trying to figure this out on my own it would have taken much longer. I could feel that Winston was lost in this entire conversation but it didn't matter if he understood, the only one who mattered was Alphonse.

"The reason your body was taken wasn't for materials for mom. It was for the fee to go through the gate, then I gave my right arm to pull your soul out."

"Then why couldn't you pull your mom out?" Winston asked. So maybe he was getting some of this.

"Mom was too far into the gate to pull back out." I answered him.

"I remember reaching to something that looked like mom." Al said. 'What?'

"Al try to remember, you got farther then I did so I didn't see that." Al reached out his hand like he was trying to recreate the moment.

"It was me, mom wasn't there." I nodded.

"That's right you're there." I said.

"I remember...that time...I was watching you from the thing that we thought was mom." I remember that thing reaching out to me, that creature was my own brother at a time. I shivered at the thought and pressed my head against his chest plate.

"Let's just be happy that your soul didn't get fixed on that." I hugged my brother "Al I'm so sorry we transmuted something totally different and I got you caught in the mess, and I turned you into a time bomb with that body. I'm sorry." I felt Al hug me back. A knock on the door broke the hug. "Get lost Ling!" I yelled not in the mood to deal with the foreigner.

"Mr Elric there is a phone call for you from an Izumi Curtis." A man said from behind the door. I stood up and went to the door to follow the man to the lobby. "Might I ask who Ling is?" The man asked.

"Just someone who doesn't know when he's over stayed his welcome." I answered him. I got to the front desk and picked up the phone. "Izumi?" I asked into the phone.

"Listen Sig told me what you said so we looked into it, that child couldn't have been ours." She said quickly, still mad at me. "What have you found out?"

"A dead person can't be revived." I told my former teacher.

"Ed." She said on the other end of the line, it called me to attention one of the first times she called me by my nick name. "Thanks." She hung up the phone before I could ask why. I went back to the stairs so I could go back to the room, thanks was still ringing through my head. I almost didn't notice the suit of armour standing at the foot of the stairs.

"What did teacher say?" He asked.

"Thanks." I said as I passed him and started walking up the stairs.

"Okay. I've been blaming myself since the day that we transmuted mom. But I was afraid to say it. I was... I was the one that made mom that way and then killed her... I was afraid to say it. Thank you Sister." He said that last part just above a whisper so only he and I could her it.

"Me too." I related to my little brother and for once I didn't have the weight of killing mom on my shoulders. "Even if I didn't kill mom, I still made you into that body. It's not something that will be forgiven. Until I get your body back I won't-"

"Sister." Al cut me off. "The same crimes fall on me. I was part of it. Don't say it like you have to carry all that by yourself. Don't hold yourself responsible. I saw people, with their own bodies, they had objections with their own body and they lived wildly. I thought about the way they lived. People around me treat me like a person. And even though I could be rejected at any moment, it's the same as being human never knowing when you could die. If I live normally then there's nothing bad about this still.. I don't... I don't want to spend another night alone. That's the only reason that I want my body back."

"And I just really want to see you smile again." I said truthfully.

"I don't want to involve anyone else though, I want to protect the people around me. There has to be a way where no one gets hurt and I still get my body back." He sounded a bit desperate at that point so I lightly punched his chest with my automail.

"There's no time to be worried, let's go kick that truth guy's butt. Then we'll drag your body from that place." I cheered. For the first time in a long time I felt that we had a fighting chance. I charged up the stairs and Al followed me. 'Soon little brother you won't have to spend the nights alone.'

Hey guys long time no post. Really sorry about that. Comic con was awesome. So next time I'll be seeing you guys in there hotel room with Ed again. Hopefully it wont be another week between post but no guarantees. See you next time and like always feel free to comment and suggest.