Okie dokie! To those of you who don't know the results to the one-shot contest have been posted on my profile. This contest went so well that I plan to have another in a month or so.

In other news, I was scared for my life the other day. We were set to dissect pigs in my Biology II class (which was not fun by the way), and Ragan, being the sadist he is, said, "I can't wait to dissect pigs today! It'll be just like dissecting LeFay!" ... I don't think he meant it as a compliment. Ragan wrote a one-shot a couple of weeks back and I urge you all to check it out to see how twisted his mind is. I'll be posting it in a little bit and it will be called, "A Sadist's Story".

Anyway! Loved all the reviews! Can't wait for more! Yadda yadda yadda! And on with the show!

Chapter 38

An 'average' afternoon in Rush Valley

(-Ed-)

"So, how long do you think it will take?" Ed asked anxiously.

Winry frowned as she inspected the now unattached automail arm, "Why are you asking? Don't tell me you're planning on running off to get into more trouble."

"I'd just like to be able to hit the road soon. Al's waiting in Central. Which reminds me, I need to call him soon."

The mechanic looked up at him as he stared off into space. She caught him off guard by asking, "Do you really think that's a good idea?"

"What do you mean?" he countered, snapping his attention back to her.

She talked as she replaced a gear in the forearm of the automail, "It might be better if you stayed put for a little while, for Taylor's sake. She might not be up to traveling yet."

Ed reflexively glanced down the hall that led to the bedroom Taylor and he shared. He had woken up only an hour ago in the middle of the afternoon. Taylor still slept soundly, needing the extra rest. He didn't know how long she would be out and was nervous of how she would act when she woke up. Would there be a repeat of last time? Or would she be okay?

He mentally slapped himself. Of course she's not going to be okay, you idiot! Would you be okay if someone ate your arms? NO!

Ed scratched his head as he pondered. "You've got a point. But I don't think she would want to stay here, so close to where it happened. I sure as hell wouldn't. It might ease her mind when we go to Central."

Winry sighed, "That may be true but don't force anything on her. Let her choose. She's been through a lot and hasn't healed yet."

"You don't have to remind me." Ed grumbled. He turned his back to her, "I'm gonna go call Al."

He left the workshop room and went to the front room where customers came in. As it was, Garfiel was speaking to someone at a table. Ed ignored them and walked behind the counter to access the phone. Taking a deep breath, he dialed the number to the dorms and connected to Alphonse.

"Brother?" Al voice came through the receiver. His question wasn't for clarification of who was on the phone but to ask what was going on.

"Everything's fine Al. I found Taylor."

"You did? Where was she? Is she okay? What happened? Is she "

"Slow down, Al!" Ed ordered, holding the phone away from his ear as the questions were yelled one after another.

"Sorry," Al apologized. "I'm just worried."

Ed sighed, "I know. She's alright physically. She's sleeping right now."

"…What do you mean by 'physically'?" Al asked, catching on quickly.

And so Ed told him. He explained last night's whole ordeal, even divulging what the Homunculi had done to her.

"I knew the Homunculi didn't have souls but this…" Al trailed off, unable to find an appropriate word to describe their atrocious deeds. "Brother, if this is all that results from us searching for a way to get our bodies back then I never want to go back to being normal. Not if it costs other people."

"I know how you feel." Ed nodded, even if Al couldn't see the action. "But I'm beginning to believe that we're too deep in this to turn back now. Even if we walked away our burdens would follow us wherever we go."

"But there must be something we could do." Al suggested, his voice almost pleading.

Ed's tone became determined, "There is something that we can do. We'll dig ourselves out of this hole we've buried ourselves in. You know what they say, when you hit rock bottom there's nowhere to go but up."

Al chuckled, then erupted in guffaws.

The elder blinked at his younger brother's reaction, "What's so funny?"

He settled down somewhat and answered, "It's just surprising to hear you say something like that, you being pessimistic all the time and whatnot."

"I'm not pessimistic all the time." Ed muttered. "Just some of the time."

"Whatever you say, Brother." Al replied, stifling more laughter.

Ed groaned in protest but let it slide, "Anyway, there's something else I need to tell you."

"What is it?" he asked seriously.

"It's about Taylor…" Ed began. He had explained everything to Al so far except the biggest thing. He braced himself and told him the rest of it.

(-Taylor-)

I blinked furiously, the insides of my eyelids feeling like someone had washed them with sandpaper. Ugh, I hated mornings. Scratch that. From the looks of the sun outside it was somewhere in the afternoon. Just how long had I been asleep?

Groggily, I rolled over. My hands were met with empty space. I sat up quickly, trying to remember last night. Or was it early this morning? The last thing I could recall was talking to Ed. Then he held me while I cried. I must have fallen asleep during that.

For a moment, I panicked. Ed had disappeared and I was alone. It made me look around the room with darting glances, searching for danger.

"Calm down, Taylor." I whispered to myself. Ed must have been around here somewhere. He wouldn't have just left without me. And Winry was here to. I wasn't alone. I was still safe.

I had to repeat these things to myself many times before I gained the courage to get out of bed. I opened the door and walked to the bathroom. After taking care of business I found myself staring at the mirror. My skin was even paler than usual, making the sprinkling of freckles on my cheeks stand out. There were dark circles under my eyes that screamed how tired I was. My hair stuck out in odd places, almost comically so. Overall, I looked like crap that had been stepped on. Not even the funny faces I made at myself could cheer me up so I just gave up and left the bathroom.

At least I'm not freaking out like last night, I thought to myself. In fact, I was walking down the hall and was completely ignoring the urge to look over my shoulder. That's a plus.

"BWARK!"

"Eeep!" I squealed and jumped ten feet into the air. Snapping my head in the direction the sound was made, I looked out a window and saw a large buzzard type bird perched on the branch of a tree. It glanced at me and made the same startling noise.

"What are you looking at?" I yelled at the bird, angry at having been scared for nothing.

"BWAAARK!" it screeched again.

"You laughing at me?"

"BWARK!"

"You're momma!"

"…BWARK!"

"Alright. It's go time, feather butt!"

"What are you doing?"

I tore my gaze away from the insulting bird and met Winry's confused stare. She stood at the end of the hall like she was either planning to help me regain sanity or run for her life if the former plan failed.

I pointed towards the window, "This stupid bird won't leave me alone!"

She raised an eyebrow and walked over to see. The bird cocked its head in silence.

If this were an anime instead of real life Winry would have sweat dropped. "Taylor, it's just sitting there."

I narrowed my eyes at the bird, "It only shut up now that I have Winry power on my side."

Winry snorted and grabbed my arm, "Let's go."

"Where?" I asked as she dragged me away.

"To get you some food so that you'll be in your right mind again."

My stomach rumbled at the promise of food. It had been forever since I had eaten anything. No wonder I was so grouchy. But how did Winry know I got grouchy when I was hungry?

I asked her and she laughed, saying, "Because you're just like Edward sometimes."

I couldn't decided if that was a compliment or not so I said nothing, letting her pull me into the kitchen and sit me at the small table. She chatted merrily as I watched her make quick work of some eggs and bacon. Her comments were mostly centered around what she had been doing lately and her customers. I enjoyed listening to her but I couldn't help feeling that something was off. She was too…perky.

When she set the plate of food in front of me she continued to prattle on cheerfully. I interrupted her, "Winry?"

She gave me a huge grin, "What is it, Taylor?"

"You don't have to act like that."

"Like what?"

"So cheery. It's making me nervous to be honest."

She deflated but gave me a small, genuine smile, "Sorry. I guess it's my own nerves getting to me."

I returned her smile, "It's alright. You're wanting to ask me about what happened, right?"

She squeaked at being caught, "Heh, how'd you know?"

"Psychic powers." I whispered and took a bite of bacon. She stared at me, frozen, while I chewed. I swallowed and said, "That was a joke, Winry. Feel free to laugh."

"Oh…" she croaked. We sat there like that for a minute until we both began giggling, which turned into full out laughter. The tension in Winry eased with her laughs but if she had really been listening to mine she would have heard the edge of hysteria in mine.

We calmed down and I dug into my food. In between bites I gave her the simplest version of what happened yesterday, being sure to leave out the major stuff. I was surprised at what a relief it was to talk about even that small bit. Winry gave me her full attention. She never once told me how sorry she was and I was grateful. I didn't want to be pitied. Instead, she suggested that I could talk to her whenever I needed and then she did the most amazing thing ever.

"Here," she said, handing me something.

"What's this for?" I asked, gesturing to the wrench in my hand.

"Self defense."

I smiled and pulled her into a tight hug, a few tears threatening to leak out. I was so lucky to have her as a friend.

(-Taylor-)

After my afternoon breakfast, I asked Winry where Ed was. She told me that he had went to call Al a while ago and that I could probably find him in the front room. I left Winry to her automail as I went in search of him. The front room was occupied by only Garfiel. He was saying goodbye to a customer as I walked up to him. I asked him where Ed had gone and he told me that he had just left to go for a walk and that I could catch him if I hurried. And so I did.

I stepped outside and craned my neck back and forth to see which way he had gone. The afternoon sunlight hit a head of golden hair off in the distance and I raced after it.

"Hey. Where ya goin?" I asked, falling into step beside a one armed Ed.

He glanced at me as if I had distracted him from his thoughts, "Oh, nowhere in particular. I've just got a lot on my mind right now." He looked at me again, this time more appraisingly, "You seem better today."

I shrugged, "I don't know about that." I watched my feet scuffing the dirt road as we moved through the bustling city. I could feel Ed's stare, like he was trying to figure me out. It made me fidgety so I started to ramble, "It's odd…thinking about what happened. It almost feels like it happened to someone else. But I know that it was me and that's what frightens me, because I don't want it to be real."

"But it is real and the first step to moving past it is accepting it. Denying it only prolongs the pain."

"Speaking from experience?" I tried to smile but my lips stayed in a stiff line.

"Yes." he answered simply.

We fell into silence, letting our feet make the only sounds between us as we walked. I knew Ed was right but still, it was hard. Overcoming something like that wouldn't be easy and to tell the truth I would be scarred for life.

For some reason I wanted to cry. Stubbornly, I kept the waterworks at bay. I didn't want to be weak anymore. But I wasn't superhuman. I could only bear so much before I crumbled. And I had tried so hard to be strong lately. Didn't I deserve to be weak just this once?

My eyes chose the answer for me. A few tears spilled over, causing me to wipe away the streaks. Ed remained quite, giving me peace to do what I needed to do. We stayed like that for a while.

Eventually my eyes dried and I was able to change the subject, "So, Winry said that you talked to Al?" My voice wavered slightly from the crying.

"Yeah… I told him, about everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything." he confirmed.

"…oh…Where does that leave us?"

He heaved a sigh and scratched the back of his head, "Honestly? I have no clue. It's a lot to take in. Al was just as surprised as I was, if not more. He doesn't know what to think about it either."

Awkward silence followed. There was a statement lingering between us, yearning to be said. I knew I had to say it. "Ed, you know with the power of my stone you and Al could possibly get your bodies back."

"I'd be lying if I said that hadn't crossed my mind." he admitted. We came to the top of a hill that overlooked most of Rush Valley. The view of the setting sun was breathtaking. We ended up sitting on the ground, staring off into the distance.

"Do you "

"No," he cut me off firmly, already knowing what I would say. "I won't use you like that."

"Is it because your morals won't let you use the stone because of the human souls in it?"

"No, it's because it would be dangerous for you and I don't want to risk you getting hurt."

The way he looked at me right then made me blush. I hid my face behind a curtain of hair.

He must not have noticed or chose not to comment because he went on, "There's no telling what would happen to you if we used the stone like that. It's fused into you so completely that it's apart of you. The stone's power could be depleted with a transmutation of that scale…"

"And it might use me as well." I finished for him.

He nodded, "Exactly. That's why I want to find another way. Besides, you said before that we get our bodies back. That must mean that it all works out."

I laughed nervously, "I'd like to think that but so much has happened I don't know where this will all lead. Everything has gotten out of whack."

Ed snorted.

I narrowed my eyes at him, "What's so funny?"

He shook his head, "Nothing. You just have a way with words is all."

"Oh, you ain't seen nothing yet my home skillet biscuit."

Ed stared at me as if I had grown another head.

"What you looking at me like that for, homie? It ain't cool, dog."

"…Have you lost your mind?"

"Nah, I'm just getting my gangster on."

"Gangster?"

"Yeah. I'm a gangster, I'm a straight up G. The gangster life is the life for me."

As I rapped more of the song he howled with laughter. Even if I did still feel like crap at least I could make people laugh. Humor was the best way to deal with traumatizing events. If you couldn't find something to laugh about you would go insane.

Ed calmed down when I stopped rapping, but a small smile lingered on his lips. We soon became lost in our own individual thoughts. Ed was probably wondering what a gangster was while my mind steered back to the original subject. Where were we now in the series? Different things happened after Dublith but it was hard to sort out which events belonged to which storyline.

"Hey Ed?" I asked.

"Hm?"

"Can you tell me what happened when you went to the Devil's Nest to find Al?"

His brows furrowed, "Don't you know what happened?"

"There are different stories, Ed. I'm trying to figure out which one took place."

He understood my logic and explained that night to me. Ed and Izumi had rushed to the bar and found Al with Greed and his group of chimeras. They fought until soldiers from the Southern Command Center arrived (A/N: I got it wrong a few chapters ago when I said they were from the Eastern one. My bad.), along with the Fuhrer himself.

I interrupted him there, "Did Bradley kill a snake chimera named Martel while she was hiding inside of Al?"

"Yeah, actually."

"That must mean that Greed is dead." I guess that meant I wouldn't be seeing that particular homunculus. Unless, Ling showed up in the picture any time soon, which I was beginning to doubt. At any rate, even if he did Greed couldn't be reborn like how Father did it in Brotherhood. It took a human transmutation in this one.

"Are you saying that Bradley killed Greed? I thought the Homunculi were supposed to be immortal?"

"Not exactly." I answered on both accounts. I explained to him the whole Philosopher's Stone being their core and how it was likely that they could die if their stone's power ran out. Confused, Ed brought up the fact that they were trying to create a stone. Why would they need to create a stone if they already had the ones inside them? "It's because only they can use their own stones. And since they can't perform alchemy the only thing they're useful for is regeneration."

"It makes sense." he agreed. "They'll manipulate someone else to create one and use it for them."

"Yeah." I said, thinking about something. There was a thought that was bothering me. I kept thinking about the three separate storylines and how they were involved here. But wasn't there something about the manga I heard from Nathan? He was an odd kid that was in my class. We were talking about anime one day, FMA to be specific. He said something about Brotherhood being better because of the manga. But what was it he had said about the manga?

I slapped my forehead, "I'm such a freaking moron!"

"Uhhh, Taylor?" Ed asked uncertainly.

"Sorry, I just realized something." I groaned.

"Care to enlighten me?"

"Well, you know how I said there were three different stories about you back in my world?"

"Yeah."

"I just realized that there are really only two."

Ed's jaw dropped, "What?"

"I forgot that the manga is practically like the second anime. God, I'm such an idiot."

In a less surprised tone, Ed asked, "What?"

Oh yeah. I forgot he didn't know about manga or anime because I had been calling them stories to make it simpler.

I sighed, "A manga is a type of book with lots of artwork. An anime is like a show. There are two animes and one manga of FMA but one of the animes follows the manga for the most part. You follow me?"

He nodded slowly, "I think so." Then he suddenly chuckled. He hid his mouth behind his hand as he laughed again.

"What?"

He glanced at me with humor shining in his eyes, "All this time we thought there were three stories we had to worry about when there were only two this entire time. Leave it to you Taylor to make a situation more complicated."

"I resent that." I told him moodily, slapping his arm. He laughed again so I threatened, "Winry gave me a wrench. Don't make me use it on you."

That shut him up. Heh, I'd have to thank Winry again later.

We watched the sun as it sank into the horizon. Twilight soon came and the night would come after. I was reluctant to go but I knew we would need to head back soon. But there was one last thing that I needed to tell Ed. It was about how a homunculus is created. I was pretty certain he didn't know yet. I think he was supposed to have found out by now. So it would fall on me to tell him the truth. Oh, great joy.

"Ed," I began. "There's something I need to "

"Look out!" Ed screamed, pushing me out of the way as something crashed into where I had been sitting. Unfortunately, this caused us both to tumble down the hill. The world spun as we rolled together to the bottom.

"Ugh, what?" I asked dizzily.

"We got to move!" Ed told me urgently.

"Why?" I asked, bewildered.

"Your stalker's back, and I don't think he's very happy."

I snapped to attention and looked up the hill. There, at the top, was Fate. He pulled his sword out of the ground where he had struck and stared down at us coldly.

"Come on!" Ed ordered, dragging me to my feet and down the road.

"How does he keep finding me?" I said in exasperation. I glanced over my shoulder…which was a bad idea. "Ah! He's catching up to us!"

"Damn it. Run faster!" Ed ordered.

"I'm…trying!" I panted as I increased my speed as much as humanly possibly. Ed held onto my hand as we sped down the streets of Rush Valley. As to be expected, pedestrians were giving us strange looks. They stood there and gawked at us as we passed by with a crazed swordsman on our heels. Really, was it too much to ask for them to call the cops or something?

I saw Fate rear his sword back out of my peripheral vision and Ed pushed me out of the way. I fell into a crate of supplies sitting outside of a store. I sat up as quickly as I could to catch where Ed had went. Currently, he was dodging another one of Fate's attacks. He weaved in and out of the blade's swings, forced to be on the defensive due to his lack of arm. And if Ed couldn't fight back properly we were screwed.

Ed dodged again, ducking and rolling. It left him open for a moment and Fate swooped in. While Ed laid on his back the sword descended downward, only to be stopped by the boot of Ed's automail foot. He kicked the blade away and pushed off of the ground with one hand. It was awkward but he managed to flip backwards, clipping his opponents chin in the process. It didn't do much good because Ed was getting backed into a wall. Fate shot his sword out and Ed barely avoided it as the blade sunk into the brick of the building.

"Ha, you missed." Ed antagonized him.

In answer, Fate charged his sword up with yellow sparks. The wall exploded and chunks of brick went everywhere. Ed was blown to the side and rolled into a crouching position. Blood poured down his face and dripped off of his chin. He wiped it out of his eye in annoyance.

"So you're able to run an electric charge through your sword." Ed commented. "Nifty."

Fate rushed him and this time, it would be too fast for Ed to get out of the way.

"No!" I screamed after finding my voice. I clapped my hands together and willed the ground to protect Ed. A small wall jutted out from the ground in front of Ed just as Fate's sword nearly plunged into him. The blade became stuck in the obstacle.

Ed jumped out from behind the wall and moved in on Fate. He kicked the man away from his weapon, sending him flying.

He smirked, "Without your sword you can't perform your alchemy."

Oh no. Ed must think that there was a transmutation circle on Fate's sword, enabling him to supercharge it. His assumption was going to get him killed.

Fate recovered faster than I would have thought and stood up. His blank face didn't even twitch as he spoke, "You're wrong." He drove his fist in the ground, reminding me of one of Armstrong's attacks. The lightning raced towards Ed who was defenseless against it. The charge ran up his legs and my eyes widened at the sound of Ed's cries of agony. When the sparks stopped Ed's legs buckled and he fell to the ground.

"ED!" I screamed. No, no, no! This can't be happening! No!

His head lifted the smallest bit and his eyes found me. "Run!" he called to me hoarsely.

I didn't want to leave him helpless like that but there was no way I would be able to stand against Fate on my own. He would surely kill me. As Fate walked towards me I watched him in silent terror.

"Taylor!" Ed shouted.

I snapped out of it and chose to run for it. It was the only thing I could think of. If I could lead Fate far enough away maybe Ed would be safe. It was worth a try and I was all out of options anyway.

I didn't make it five feet. Fate suddenly appeared in front of me, spun in a circle, and drove his foot into my stomach. The air whooshed out of my lungs as I was tossed into the air. I landed a couple of yards away from Ed, gasping for breath.

"No matter what you do you will lose." I heard Fate's emotionless voice. "It is inevitable."

"It won't stop me from trying." I coughed, pulling myself up.

"Stay away from her!" Ed growled as he struggled to get up as well.

Fate paid him no mind, walking towards me. I scurried back but he caught me by the collar of my shirt. He seemed to almost frown as he examined my arms, "You've lost part of your arrays."

"What's your point?" I snapped both in irritation and fear of what he was going to do.

"They are the connection to the gate. I shall restore them."

He touched the tattoos on my collarbone and they instantly flared a bright red. I screamed as fire seared through my veins. Distantly, I could hear Ed yelling for me but the pain held all of my attention. My hands came up to grip Fate's arms and I was astonished to see the missing tattoos fill back in. I stared into his eyes, their dark depths swallowing me as I descended into blackness.

(-Ed-)

"Taylor!" Ed screamed in vain. His body wouldn't obey him so he was powerless to stop the man from lifting Taylor off of the ground. He watched as he touched her and the tattoos returned to her arms. Then, worst of all, a large eye opened on her chest in the middle of the array centered there. Black arms reached out and pulled her through, leaving Fate holding nothing.

"No! Taylor…" Ed yelled again but his voice sounded muffled and far away. He noticed the signs of losing consciousness and fought against it with all of his might but it was a battle he was losing. In his fading vision he saw Fate retrieve his weapon and walk away.

"Taylor…" Ed moaned again as he succumbed to darkness.

(-Winry-)

The afternoon had transformed into Twilight when Winry heard a commotion outside.

"What in the world?" she asked herself as she ventured outdoors. People were running down the street towards something. She didn't know what but she had a bad feeling about it. She followed the crowd down the streets and soon found what all the noise was about.

"Edward!" Winry shouted. She ran to her unconscious friend as a couple of worried civilians were placing his arms around their shoulders to lift him up.

"Do you know him, Miss?" one of them asked in relief.

She nodded fiercely, "Yes, he's my friend. What happened to him?"

"Him and this girl were fighting some guy." the other one answered her.

"Girl?" He must be referring to Taylor. Winry glanced around the area but couldn't find any sign of her, "Where is the girl he was with?"

The men looked at each other before the first one said, "You're not going to believe this but she just disappeared."

"Disappeared? How?" she demanded.

They shook their heads. "The guy they were fighting, he had something to do with it."

Winry wanted to ask more questions but she needed to tend to Ed. She directed the men back to Garfiel's shop where they carried him inside. Winry asked them to let her know if they saw the girl again anywhere and they promised they would. As Winry cleaned Ed's wounds she panicked as to what had happened to Taylor. She wanted to go search for her so badly, but Ed needed her too. He might wake up while she was out looking and she wanted to be there when he regained consciousness.

It took over an hour for the young alchemist to open his eyes. When he did, he bolted upright, "Taylor!"

"Calm down, Ed." Winry told him gently, placing a hand on his shoulder.

He grunted as the quick movement had caused him pain. He held his head for a moment in an effort to make the throbbing subside. "Winry? What happened?"

"I found you unconscious in the middle of the street, that's what happened." Winry said, peeved.

Ed looked up at her, "And Taylor?"

She shook her head, her expression turning sad, "I didn't see her there. They said she disappeared."

Ed covered his face with his hand, "So it really did happen. She's gone." Then he swung his legs over the bed and went to stand up.

"What are you doing? Lay back down." Winry ordered, pushing him back. It was a testament to how weak he was that she was able to.

"I've got to find her!" Ed argued.

"You can't go anywhere in your condition. You need to rest or you'll get worse."

"I don't care!" he yelled. The anger was so thick in his voice that Winry actually took a step back. He was able to get to his feet without her stopping him, only to collapse again.

Winry caught him and pulled him back to the bed, "You're pushing yourself to hard, Ed."

He laid down, breathing heavily as sweat formed on his brow, "I've got to…"

The chime of the telephone came to them but Winry chose to ignore it. Ed was more important than a customer. But whoever it was were very persistent. The phone kept ringing and ringing until Winry got up.

"Stay here. When I come back we'll figure something out." she told him and left.

(-Ed-)

"I have to find her." he told himself. He pushed himself up into a sitting position, his joints burning in protest. His body wanted to rest but he couldn't yet. Not until he found Taylor.

He had gotten both of his feet to the floor again just as Winry ran into the room.

"Ed!" she said.

"I don't care what you say Winry. I have to "

"Al just called! He said that Taylor's at the hospital in Central."

Ed stared dumbly at her for a minute. Then he bellowed, "How the hell did she get to Central!"

So, I tried my best on this chapter. For some reason, it was hard to write and it took me forever. Let me know if it wa good or not.